The crisis surrounding the naira redesign worsened on Tuesday as the Central Bank of Nigeria failed to clarify the legal tender status of the old notes.
The development created more confusion across the country amid the refusal by banks, filling stations, and traders to accept the old currencies.
This happened as a shortage of new notes persisted in states and the Federal Capital Territory.
However, The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has directed Deposit Money Banks to collect old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers with reference codes generated from its website.
Multiple bank sources confirmed that the branches received a directive from the head office some hours ago that they should collect the old notes from their customers who have enrolled and generated reference codes from the CBN website.
A top CBN official confirmed the directive: “Yes we have directed them to collect the old N500 and N1,000 from customers, subject to a maximum of N500,000.”
Recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the old N500 and N1,000 notes were no longer legal tenders, but that those having the notes should take the notes to the CBN.
