…Assures Nigerians’ Legitimate Earnings Intact
Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN,Godwin Emefiele,has accused commercial banks of breaching the apex bank’s guidelines on currency swap in the country.
He spoke when he addressed the House of Representatives adhoc committee on the cashless policy of the apex bank on Tuesday,and assured that no Nigerian with legitimate earnings will their money on the account of the new monetary policy.
He said that the value of old naira notes of N200, N500 and N1000 will still be redeemed even after they have ceased to be legal tender by February 10 deadline.
According to him,the redemption was in tandem with the law, precisely section 20 (3) of CBN Act, noting the essence was to mop-up the old notes in circulation.
Expatiating on how banks breached guidelines on the disbursement of new notes,the governor said:”We held several meetings with the deposit money banks and provided them with guidance note on processing on collection of old notes and the distribution of the new notes. These include specific directives to the banks to load the new notes into the ATM nationwide to ensure an equitable and transparent mechanisms for the distribution of the new notes to all Nigerians.
“We wanted to be sure that the currency is coming out and it’s issued to the banks that the banks must go through a process that is equitable and transparent. We say we don’t want customers to go and banks to treat customers as priority and some as less important. When you go to the counters, depending on the large size of business that you give to the bank, as we are issuing you with this currency, load these monies into your ATM.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the ATM is a robot. You just give is the command. The maximum anybody can collect is whether is N20,000 or N40,000, that’s what everybody collects. Whether you are a priority or not a priority customer. That’s the reason behind this decision. Every, go to the ATM and of court, they have loading those monies into the ATM.
“I addressed the bankers on Sunday and I expressed to them my disappointment and in fact, the disappointment of the president, disappointment of leaders in the country with the way this has gone on because many of us have unfortunately seen the new naira instead of being used for the purpose it’s meant, the new naira is being used in parties, in celebrations and some of them said well, may be it’s money from the ATM and I said no, money from the ATMs are already broken.
“They are in leaflets but what we saw being stamped on people at parties were packages of the new Naira notes which means they had breached certain aspects of the guidance note we gave to them”, he said.
Emefiele told the lawmakers that President Buhari had been briefed on why the anti-graft agencies should be part of the exercise.
“And when I met President Buhari, I told him that we have met with the EFCC, ICPC and NFIU and that we are now going to bring EFCC, ICPC, NFIU to join us in monitoring the flow of this currency to our people. I must say that I am even delighted that even yesterday, I even read that the DSS themselves have even started which is what we want so that everybody knows that we are conducting this activity to the best of our ability.
“We are doing this for the good of Nigerians. We are doing this so that the Nigerian economy can be better than it is today and I am saying that we are begins to see some of the benefits”, he said.
Emefiele said that the country has witnessed many benefits so far.
The governor also appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the CBN, saying the pains of the moment would give way to gains.
He said:”We know in the process that some will be hurt, I will say temporarily. But it’s a pain that I will appeal to all of us to please show some understanding because the overriding benefits to Nigerians is what we are interested in which is about making our economy stronger then combatting the high incidence of insecurity”.
The governor also said that over 1.5 million super agents had been recruited to make the exercise seamless.
“Another action we took is that we commenced nationwide sensitization through print and electronic media to create an awareness on the redesign notes to Nigerians through the collaboration of the national orientation agency to all Nigerians across multiple channels.
“Third, like some of us may have known, in an attempt to ensure that we have a higher rate of financial inclusion, we increased the rate of the banks. We today have 1.5 million supper agents. These are like people who are acting as banks but they are banks as such in the sense that they done have vaults but they have kiosks. They sell pepper and sweets and Kola nuts or restaurants. We made them out agents in different parts of this country. We brought them in.
“Out of these 1.5 super agents are everywhere, in your village and mine. You can open account with them. They are called tier three banks. All they need is your name, BVN and phone number and you have an account. Very seamlessly.
“Out of this 1.5 million agents, we specially deployed 30, 000 of them and through our officials, you collect some amount of money on daily basis. You just go back to where you are selling your sweet and do cash swap, for now N10,000.
“Four,we deployed all our staff and literally shut down Abuja and Lagos, go to your locality. Those people have been in their localities. They take cash from the CBN and do cash exchange for everybody even when you don’t have an account. That’s what we have done”, he said.
Emefiele assured the House of working in tandem with the extant laws, saying that despite the deadline, old notes in people’s hands will continue to be in exchanged for new ones.
“But I want to make my last comment subject to the content of the CBN Act, section 20(3) which says even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status, that we are mandated to collect those monies and I stand with the House of Representatives on this. What does that mean?
“It would have lost its legal tender status which means we have moved on but you have your money that you have not been able to sent into the bank, we will give you the opportunity to bring it back into the CBN to redeem it either you pay into your bank account or you want do exchange, we give you. It is your money.
“That’s the assurance I give to Nigerians. This is not an easy exercise but we are happy that in 19 years, we are able to carry out this important aspect of our mandate. We are grateful that we are doing this. We want to do this but we are seeking support and cooperation of everybody.
“At this initial stages, there will be a few hitches, glitches, we apologize, but I want to say that the overriding interest is the Nigerian economy. To make Nigerian economy stronger and better because that’s what we Nigerians in the position God has put us today and I will continue to seek your support to please, allow this programme to succeed”, he said.
The House adhoc panel expressed satisfaction over the assurance to redeem old naira notes, just as they demanded the official figures of released naira notes to commercial banks.
