By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The cash swap programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in rural and underserved areas of the country kicked off on Monday, January 23, 2023, amid mixed feelings.
On October 26, 2022, the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, announced that the bank would redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
At a special press briefing in Abuja, he further disclosed that the new banknotes would be introduced into the system on December 15, 2022, while by January 31, 2023, all the old notes would have been mopped up from the circulation.
As announced, the new notes hit circulation last month, but instead of banks to stop giving customers the old notes, they are still issued with the currency despite having about a week to the deadline.
This raised doubts about the feasibility of the deadline, especially when Nigerians in the rural areas were yet to see the redesigned Naira denominations.
In order to reach these people, the central bank launched the cash swap policy, which allows Nigerians to exchange their old notes for new ones.
According to a circular jointly signed over the weekend by the Director of Banking Supervision at the CBN, Mr Haruna Mustafa, and the Director of Payments System Management, Mr Musa Jomoh, the initiative was to reach rural communities in Nigeria.
Under this programme, an agency will “exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person, as the amount above this would be treated as a cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy, BVN, NIN or voter’s card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible.”
The CBN said to promote financial inclusion, “this service is also available to anybody without a bank account. Agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. This will ensure that this category of the populace is able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost.”
For accountability, the agent would be required to “render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions. DMBs shall, in turn, render same to the CBN on a weekly basis.”
Reports gathered by Business Post indicate that this policy was a mixed bag on its first day.
In the Igbo Egun area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, this newspaper was informed that residents of this community are still in the dark about the redesigned Naira notes, while a few of the Ilogbo community in Ado-Odo/Otta in Ogun State, and those in the Ishefun, Olayemi, Igesu, Olorunisola areas of Ayobo, Lagos, have seen the new notes and are optimistic of having their cash swapped for the new notes before the deadline.
