CBN: Chaos Looms As Emefiele Finally Defies Supreme Court

In defiance of the Supreme Court ruling, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared that the old naira notes of N200, N500, and N1000 have been demonetized and are no longer legal tender.

The apex court had last week declared that the old notes remained a legal tender until a final decision is made on the case brought to the court by three state governors, Nasir Elrufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawale of Zaamfara state.

The judgment, many legal experts say, supersedes the initial February 10 deadline set by the Godwin Emefiele-led CBN.

But feelers from the apex bank indicate that it is not prepared to obey the nation’s highest court.

For instance, many customers who visited some commercial banks in the country on Monday were thrown into confusion after their banks rejected the old notes, saying they were acting on the directive from the CBN.

A commercial bank was said to have sent memo to its branches across the country on Monday to stop collecting the old currencies from customers.

Recall that Godwin Emefiele during his meeting with the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on Naira Swap assured Nigerians that commercial banks are under obligation to collect the old notes from customers even after the window provided for their expiration has closed.

The apex bank has now decided to act otherwise considering the situation on the ground, many also say.

According to The Tribune, the CBN made the declaration on Monday through its Branch Controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists.

The apex court had last week declared that the old notes remained a legal tender until a final decision is made on a case brought to the court by three state governors, Nasir Elrufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawale of Zaamfara states.

According to The Tribune, the CBN made the declaration on Monday through its Branch Controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists.

He said that “In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated by questions from various angles of the general public about our operational guidelines on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many questions here and there which people have been asking about.”

According to him, “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 free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has seized to be a legal tender since 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.”

Andaza further explained that “After filling the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it in your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein. In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit.

“By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code will be accepted from you as well as the money, process and confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation now.”

He warned that “If anyone wants to try us by bringing in fake notes, he should be ready to be arrested, so don’t go and print old fake naira notes and bring them to the CBN, whatever happens to you, don’t blame us, you caused it.”

He, however, assured that “We will receive the money from you and do our internal checks before we give you an acknowledgement which is evidence to show that we have collected that amount from you and we go ahead with our internal processes, after finishing with the internal processes, we now hit your account and credit it through your Commercial bank.

“All the Commercial banks are expected to bring all old notes deposited to us and we will collect, that is the final. Some of the Banks have started depositing with us because they want to close their books, as soon as they do that, they will not collect from customers again, that is the reason CBN decided to open this portal for the general public especially the vulnerable who are still having problems of cash used for trading and now that the deadline has expired, they need to deposit their money.

“The CBN is trying to minimize risk involved in losing that money, we are trying to minimize hardship also, we know that people are having some hardship, people are suffering, we not unmindful of that fact, that why the management of the CBN has magnanimously decided to open that portal to assist those who were unable to deposit the money into their bank accounts, that is our process flow in a nutshell.

“The portal will be there, opened for some time, depending on the circumstances and the directives from the management, we expect that within this period, people should have been able to deposit all they have, it is a privilege given to Nigerians to ensure that they deposited that money even though they are no longer legal tender.

“For the people in the remote areas, if you can recollect, we have gone round virtually all the villages in Bauchi state with some commercial banks asking the people to open accounts which many of them did and were able to deposit their money, I doubt if there are still people who have not keyed into the system now who are still having old money.

“We used the media, NOA and Traditional rulers just to let the people know, no limit to the amount that can be deposited provided the form was properly filled.

“There are a lot of firewalls that can protect the people accessing the portal, no any cause for alarm.”