By Aminu Kutama
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday threatened to sanction commercial banks in Ogun State dispensing the old naira notes.
The apex bank introduced new naira notes – N200, N500, and N1,000 – and gave a January 31st deadline for the phasing out of the old notes.
With less than two weeks to the deadline and with several Nigerians complaining about the unavailability of the new notes, the Abeokuta branch controller of the apex bank Lanre Wahab said the CBN won’t hesitate to sanction banks still dispensing the old notes to customers.
“They are going to be penalised wherever we still find old notes that have been redesigned – N200, N500, and N1,000. Any bank that is found still issuing/dispensing them will get sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said after an engagement – about the redesigned notes – with market men and women and members of the informal sector at the Lafenwa Market.