CBN Moves To Monitor Banks' Strong Rooms To Prevent Hoarding Of New Naira Notes

Nigeria's apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Rivers State on Sunday has made bold moves to monitor commercial banks.

The CBN said it would be monitoring commercial bank’s strong rooms to prevent banks from hoarding the newly redesigned naira notes.

The CBN on Sunday extended the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes for the new ones till February 10.

Nigerians across the country have lamented the scarcity of the new naira notes.

Operators of Point of Sales (POS) system in some states have resorted to the collection of 10 per cent of withdrawals in new naira notes following the scarcity of the redesigned denominations of the currency.

However, the Rivers State Branch Controller of CBN Mr Maxwell Okafor in a statement on Sunday said the bank would monitor banks' strong rooms to identify the ones that make it difficult for Nigerians to access the new notes, Daily Trust reports.

Okafor said this in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, after monitoring the CBN cash swap in the city and Igwurita in the Ikwerre local government area of the state, on Sunday.

According to Okafor, many residents, especially POS operators, are finding it difficult to access the new naira notes, thereby making it hard for the money to get to the areas where banks do not exist.

He said POS operators were passing through difficulty to get the new notes, saying many get discouraged from going to the banks because of the stress of staying for several hours in queues. He added that monitoring banks' strong rooms will put an end to the hoarding of the notes by defaulting banks.

He said, “It took us lots of time for us to enter bank hall to assist POS operators get the new naira notes. If Nigerians can experience this type of thing in our presence, how much more when we are not around. Banks should make the process of cashing money easier for Nigerians so that they can access the new naira notes, especially the POS operators.

“The POS operators take money to many of the places where banks do not exist as they can push the money to every nook and cranny of the state. As for hoarding of the new naira notes, we have to do further exercise as to ensure that money is distributed to the people. It means we have to get to their strong rooms. We will check how they disburse what they have, what they have in the ATM."

"The apex bank will visit other banks outside Port Harcourt to ensure compliance with the disbursement of the new naira notes and appeal to banks to assist CBN make the process easy," he added.