The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to load their Automated Teller Machines with only new notes to ensure that the currency circulates across the nation ahead of the January 31, 2023, deadline when the old notes will no longer be legal tender.

CBN also ordered Deposit Money Banks not to pay customers making over-the-counter withdrawals of new naira notes again.

This was contained in a memo issued to all the branch managers to enforce the CBN order, which takes effect immediately.

The memo, which was titled., ‘Urgent update on currency redesign’ and signed by the Group Head, Retail Operation, stated, “The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the Over-the-Counter payment of the new N200, N500 and N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals.

“This is effective immediately please,”

It was learnt that as of Friday, the banks had not been able to comply with the directive as they complained of inadequate supply of the new notes, prompting them to load their ATMs with the old notes.

Bankers have complained that the new notes were in short supply, hence hence the decision to load a mixture of the old and new N1,000 and N500 notes in the ATMs for customers to withdraw.

However, sources in the CBN, confirmed that the apex bank indeed issued the directive to the banks.

He explained, “From this weekend, new notes will be available for disbursement to bank customers. We are pushing the N1,000 and N500 notes through the ATMs for now. The N200 will be available later.

“The aim is to check inflation and currency abuse. A research was conducted and it showed that the demand for the N1,000 and N500 is higher, hence the decision to start with them.”