Any commercial bank that does not pick up its new currency for distribution would be fined N1 million per day, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Adeleke Adelokun, the deputy director of research for the apex bank’s Osun State branch, said this on Friday while educating traders at Osogbo’s Ayegbaju Market on the need of accepting the new currency and returning the old ones to banks.
He said, “The CBN has printed enough new naira notes, but we discovered that most of the banks have not collected the money.
“When we discovered that they refused to collect the new Naira notes we put sanctions on the bank with a fine of N1 million per box per day, depending on the number of days.
“We also mandated the banks to put new Naira notes in their ATMs all over Nigeria so that Nigerians will have access to the new Naira Notes.”
The branch controller’s representative, Modojemu Ajuma, stated in her speech that the goal of the naira redesign program is to reduce inflation.
She continued by saying that the exercise will release the money that had been hoarded into the banking system, improving the effectiveness of monetary policy.
“The currency redesign would assist in the fight against corruption as the exercise would rein in the higher denomination used for corruption, and the movement of such funds from the banking system could be tracked easily,” she added.