Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt —The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Friday berated commercial banks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, over their refusal to dispense and circulate the newly redesigned Naira notes to customers.
Branch Controller of CBN in Port Harcourt, Maxwell Okafor, while on a surveillance to commercial banks, disclosed that the apex bank released the sum of N2.5 billion of the new Naira notes to commercial banks in Port Harcourt yesterday and that another N2 billion will be injected today.
Okafor, who wondered why many bank customers were not getting the new naira notes, urged the commercial banks to stop dispensing old notes.
He expressed worries that commercial banks in Port Harcourt were frustrating efforts of the apex bank in implementing the disbursement of the new naira notes by hoarding the new money in their vaults.
“We have been monitoring the dispensing of the new Naira notes and what we have noticed so far is not encouraging. We have visited some banks and one of the banks we visited was not dispensing the new Naira notes; their ATM machines are not functioning even as at 10am this morning. These banks recieved money (new Naira notes) from CBN yesterday, and the money is still in their vaults, they are not dispensing it,” he said.
Okafor added: “So, there is no explanation for their actions and CBN has warned that there will be serious consequences for hoarding the new Naira notes, and giving it only to special customers. Many of the banks we visited are not dispensing the new Naira notes.
“On Thursday (yesterday) we injected about N2.5billion into the banks in Port Harcourt and in less than 24 hours we’re injecting another N2billion. Many bank ATM machines are not dispensing the new notes and there will be consequences.
“We stopped dispensing old currencies to banks since the new currency came out. There is no reason why the ATM should not dispense the new money and the money they (banks) collected are in the vault. There is pressure from these banks to collect more (new) money, so what are they doing with the ones they collected?
“We are going to escalate this matter and we will consult with the management on the next line of action.”
Also, the CBN Deputy Director of Strategy, Emenike Eleonu, said there was no doubt that some commercial banks were trying to frustrate what CBN was doing.
Eleonu maintained that some of the banks have the new naira notes but are not dispensing it to customers, assuring that there will be repercussions as the CBN will take up matters with the bank managements.
“The newly redesigned Naira notes are there in their vaults but they are not dispensing to customers. Almost N3billion of the new notes was injected into banks in Port Harcourt yesterday but they are not dispensing it. In one of the banks we visited, our presence made them to hurriedly load their ATM machines with the new currency,” he stated.
Some of the banks visited by the CBN monitoring team were in Aba Road and Trans Amadi. They are First Bank, Access Bank, GTB, UBA, Zenith and Keystone Bank.
The team also visited some markets in Port Harcourt, where traders and members of the public were sensisited to deposit the old Naira notes before the deadline date of January 31, 2023.
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