The Central Bank of Nigeria has instructed banks to immediately begin taking in the old N500 and N1,000 notes from the public but has limited the amount that can be collected to a maximum of N500,000.
The CBN has emphasized that these old notes are no longer considered legal tender. Due to difficulties in accessing the CBN office, the banks have been directed to collect the money instead. A source from the bank confirmed this information.
A CBN official said, “Go to your bank but fill out the form before you go. Go with the reference code you generate. With your code, banks will collect it from you. But if it is more than 500,000, you will go to the CBN and deposit it.”
Earlier, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) required individuals who wished to return old notes to fill out a code-generating form on its website. On Thursday, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele instructed banks to provide Nigerians with old N200 notes, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that the old N200 note would remain legal tender until April 10, 2023 and urged Nigerians to deposit their old N500 and N1,000 notes with the CBN. However, protests in various states due to a shortage of new naira notes prompted the CBN to mandate banks to collect higher denominations after a meeting with bank leaders.
