Banks Reconfigure ATMs As New Naira Enters Circulation Today

The newly redesigned naira notes will go into circulation today, Thursday as Nigerian banks are set to release the bills to their customers via over-the-counter payments and via the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) which have been reconfigured to dispense the new naira notes.

Gatekeepers News reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had in October announced that the apex bank would release re-designed naira notes by December 15, 2022.

Top officials of commercial banks confirmed to Punch News on Wednesday that they had received the new notes from the CBN a couple of days ago, adding that the redesigned currency would be released to their customers effective Thursday (today).

“We got the funds (new notes) about two days ago. Our head office has dispatched the funds to various area offices across the country. My branch will pick up our allocation at a nearby area office. We will start releasing the new notes to our customers by Thursday,” according to a top official of a commercial bank who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity on Wednesday because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.

Multiple banking sources also told the medium that the new notes had arrived and were being kept in their vaults.

They confirmed the new notes would be paid to customers in banking halls beginning from Thursday.

“The new notes have arrived, it will be made available to customers from tomorrow (Thursday)” an official of Polaris Bank who pleaded anonymity told The PUNCH.

Also, a manager at First Bank Plc who was not authorised to speak on the matter said, “We have the funds from the CBN now. It came in some days ago but it will be made available to customers from tomorrow (Thursday).”

However, some bank officials claimed the amount of the new notes available to the various bank from the CBN was small.

According to them, most OTC payments will still have to be made using the old notes because the amount of the available new notes is still small.

“The amount given to us is small compared to what we need. For example, what is available to my branch is less than N1m. This is nothing compared to what we need. But I believe it will increase with time,” an official of FCMB in Lagos who pleaded anonymity told one of our correspondents.

Also, multiple banking sources confirmed they have started to reconfigure their ATMs to identify the new naira notes.

A top bank executive said, “Most of the banks have started reconfiguring their ATMs so that they can identify the new notes of N1000, N500 and N200.,”’