The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes have stopped being legal tender as of February 10, 2023.
The CBN previously set January 31 as the deadline for old notes to be removed from circulation, but later extended it in response to Nigerians’ demand for scarce Naira.
However, before the February 10 deadline, the states of Kogi, Kaduna, and Zamfara petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting that the CBN be restrained from enforcing the deadline.
The Court granted their request and adjourned the case until February 15. Ever since then, there has been confusion on the matter of if the old notes remained as legal tender or not.
In an interview with journalists, CBN Branch Controller in Bauchi Haladu Idris Andaza stated that the old notes were no longer legal tender.
“In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated with questions from various segments of the general public about our operational guidelines on old currency notes; however, there are so many questions here and there that people have been asking about.”
“So for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is opened to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria.
Customers are welcome to come to the bank and deposit, which they are unable to do at commercial banks because the currency has ceased to be legal tender as of the 10th of this month.
“Consequently, the management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money”.
“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange. After completing the form, you generate a code, which you either print or bring with you on your mobile phone, and you provide us with the code and the information contained therein. You must fill out the form with all of your basic information, your account information, and the amount you wish to deposit.”
“By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code as well as the money will be accepted, processed, and confirmed the genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are fake notes.”