Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks to collect the old N500 and N1,000 notes from members of the public.
Gatekeepers News reports that the director of the apex bank’s corporate communications, Osita Nwanisobi confirmed the development to TheCable.
He however, pegged the maximum amount the banks can collect at N500,000.
The development is coming amid the nationwide outrage over the rejection of the notes which President Muhammadu Buhari declared were no longer legal tender.
In his national broadcast, Buhari had asked Nigerians to take old N500 and N1000 notes to the CBN and other designated places, but commercial banks refused to accept them, forcing Nigerians to troop to the apex bank offices.
On Thursday, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, appealed to Nigerians to allow the naira redesign policy work.
He said this in an interview with State House Correspondents after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa in Abuja.
He said the pains currently associated with the policy were temporary, making a case that the policy would enhance government’s fight against corruption and boost the economy.
He had said: “The truth is that we are all servants. We are serving Nigerians. As far as we are concerned the Attorney General has spoken on this matter and the President has sealed the whole issue this morning in his broadcast. I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians, let’s allow this policy to work.
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This policy is one policy that goes to reduce the problem of corruption and illicit financial flaws; this policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy; this policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country.
“So these three issues which are the tripod of this administration’s policy are all embedded in this policy. We should just allow it to work. We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long-run benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.”
