I was handed a mutilated naira note at a fuel station when a little girl out: "Oga, don't take it, no one will take it from you!" I turned to know more, and she narrated how CBN had been warning people on the collection of such notes and that a deadline has been set after which such notes become useless. I wondered how such an order will be possible in Nigerian society. My fears were allayed as I browsed through to know what went wrong, then, I saw a message from CBN regarding the matter. I am sharing it here so that people will have the right information.

Excerpts:

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Saturday said the general public would continue to return mutilated banknotes to their banks after the September 2 deadline.

The Director, CBN Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor disclosed this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

NAN reports that this is contrary to the news making round that mutilated notes collection would stop after the deadline.

Mr Okoroafor said that people had been misinterpreting the story to say that the banks would stop the collection of mutilated notes after September 2.

“It is not true, the banks will continue to accept those notes from people.

“The general public should continue to return mutilated banknotes to their banks after the deadline.

“The September 2, 2019, deadline does not apply to bank customers or the general public who will continue to return mutilated notes to the banks.

“It only applies to the banks because free sorting of Naira notes for them will cease at the expiration of that deadline,” Mr Okoroafor said.

He noted that September 2 was only the deadline after which CBN would begin to charge banks.

Mr Okoroafor said that “we opened a window from June to September so that when they bring the notes without sorting, we can sort it for them free.

” But as from September 2, if they get those notes, they need to sort it before they bring it to us.

“The deposit by customers and acceptance by commercial banks of mutilated notes is a normal and continuous banking practice and as such continues.

“Anyone whose qualifying mutilated note is rejected by any bank should report such a bank to CBN by calling 07002255226 between 9am and 4pm daily,” he said.

On banks compliance level to the CBN mutilated notes directive, Mr Okoroafor said, “I wouldn’t know what the compliance level is now until we ask our currency people.


“But all we know is that they are returning the notes, they have been bringing it in and we have been replacing it with new ones,” he told NAN.

Recall that the CBN had opened a three-month window from June 3 to September 2 for customers across the country to replace old notes with new ones in all the banks.

The apex bank said this was part of its efforts to improve the overall quality of the naira notes in circulation.

Agency Report, August 31, 2019.