Crowd returning old naira notes besiege CBN Lagos, Kaduna

The Lagos branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Custom street, Tinubu Square, Marina Road, Lagos Island, is milling with hundreds of Nigerians looking to deposit their old naira note.

Made up mainly of traders, some people with big Ghana must go bags are observed Friday at the bank, looking to submit their old ₦500 and ₦1000 notes in line with the CBN policy.

Some in the crowd said they have collected the old currencies from family and friends who are unable to come to the apex bank branch for the swap on their own.

It was observed that only people with codes generates after filling a form on the CBN’s website are being attended to.

When the crowd became overwhelming, officials of the apex bank asked the teeming depositors to return the monies to their banks. The crowd of depositors having non of that asked the officials to make the request official, bursting suddenly into protest songs.

“We no go gree o we no go gree,” they chanted.

Crowd seeking to return old currencies besiege CBN Lagos, Kaduna — Crowd at the CBN Kaduna

Meanwhile, residents of Kaduna State in the northern part of the country are also waiting to deposit their old currencies in the CBN in the state.

A crowd can be seen at the CBN Kaduna gate while the gate remained shut.

The state governor, Nasir El-Rufai had in a public broadcast told the state residents to continue using the currency until the Supreme Court makes a pronouncement on the case. The Kaduna State governor along with the governors of Kogi and other states had sued the federal government and the CBN over the short deadline given for the naira swap.

Banks reject old money deposit

Some of the people told by the CBN officials to return to their banks said their banks are not accepting the old notes.

Some traders who tried to deposit the old money at the First Bank branch opposite the CBN office did not accept the old notes.

Some of the traders in the crowd said they are unable to generate the code from the CBN website because they are illiterate and can’t use the website. Some of them said they have tried to generate the code but the website is not responding.

However, checks by BusinessDay reveals that the site is working, however it takes considerable time to validate account and bank verification numbers.