The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, met with DMB CEOs on Wednesday evening and revealed that the apex bank would begin disbursing old naira notes in its custody to commercial banks on Thursday (today).
According to a source who confirmed the meeting’s outcome to Punch, Emefiele directed DMBs to begin effectively disbursing old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes to members of the public.
According to the source, the CBN will also begin releasing old notes to commercial banks on Thursday.
According to meeting sources, the apex bank will also cancel all cash withdrawal limits imposed in recent months.
It was also learned that the CBN would begin by releasing crisp old notes to DMBS before releasing those deposited by commercial banks.
The apex bank stated during the meeting that bank customers would no longer be required to generate any code before depositing their old notes.
One of the bank CEOs at the meeting who spoke with Punch on condition of anonymity said;
The CBN governor met with bank CEOs this evening virtually. It was a short meeting that lasted for just about 15 minutes. The governor said all old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes will be released to commercial banks beginning from Thursday. The CBN will start with crisp old notes after which the ones deposited by DMBs will be returned. The plan is to flood the economy with cash and ameliorate the challenges Nigerians have been passing through.
The top bank chief added;
Also, the CBN will be cancelling cash withdrawal limits it put in place recently. This means that individuals can now withdraw up to N500,000 across the counter while corporate bodies can do N5m. The CBN is expected to release a circular to this effect later tonight or tomorrow morning (today). But effectively, things should be back to normal as far the cashless policy is concerned.
According to sources, banks have been directed to report to CBN offices to collect the old naira notes they deposited with the central bank.
They predicted that the country would be flooded with naira notes by the end of the week.
According to a top CBN source, the apex bank decided to cancel the planned picketing of CBN offices across the country by supporters and leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
WITHIN NIGERIA previously reported that the NLC threatened to storm the CBN headquarters and state offices on Wednesday night in protest of the country’s lingering naira crisis and fuel scarcity.