THE Central Bank of Nigeria has taken its new naira notes sensitisation to the Abubakar Mahmud Gumi Market, Kaduna State with an appeal to traders to ensure that their old notes are deposited at the commercial banks.
The apex bank noted that there would be no extension of the January 31 deadline within which the old naira notes would cease as legal tender in the country.
The CBN’s Director of Capacity Development, Mohammed Abba, who briefed journalists on the benefits of the new naira notes while sensitising traders at the Central Market Motor Park, Kaduna on Saturday, urged traders to hasten up and deposit their old naira notes in exchange for the new notes.
He also noted that the CBN would sanction errant commercial banks that refused to dispense the new naira notes through their Automated Teller Machines or hoard the money from customers, noting that “now, there is enough money.”
“We hope that by Monday all the banks dispensing old notes in Kaduna will stop doing that,” he added.
The CBN boss also disclosed that the apex Banks would reach out to people in rural areas through traditional rulers so as to sensitise them on the new naira notes and the deadline when the old notes would cease as legal tender.
According to him, the sensitization will be taken to churches, mosques as well as motor parks as part of efforts to encourage the general public to deposit their old naira notes before the deadline.
