The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has vowed to query banks that dispense old notes from their Automated Teller Machines(ATMs).
A Director at the CBN and serving Managing Director of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank Dr. Abdullahi Abubakar Kure handed down the warning in Abuja when he led a team of CBN officials on an unscheduled visit to banks in Abuja.
At Guaranty Trust Bank on Adetokunbo Ademola Wuse 2 Abuja, the team withdrew old cash from all the ATM machines on the premises.
The story was different at Access Bank also on Adetokunbo Ademola where an ATM dispensed new notes.
After the exercise, Kure said the CBN would query banks found hoarding and or diverting the new notes and dispensing old cash.
He said the CBN has enough “stock of cash to meet the requests of banks but a final decision will be taken after the unscheduled visits end on Friday”.
Kure noted that the CBN will go through its “record to ascertain the number of new notes given to banks found to be dispensing old notes via ATM. Where we detect any infractions, such banks would be sanctioned.”
He urged Nigerians to return old notes in their possession through established channels in return for the new ones.
The CBN on Monday directed all banks to dispense only new notes from their ATMs.
Apex bank has given 31st January 2023 as the deadline for old notes to cease being legal tenders.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
