Redesigned Naira: CBN accuses banks of storing N4.5 billion in new notes

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has criticised a few commercial banks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for not giving out N4.5 billion in redesigned notes that were given to them.

Maxwell Okafor, who is in charge of the CBN branch in Rivers State, said this on Friday while leading an enforcement team with the newly redesigned notes to commercial banks and markets in Port Harcourt.

When asked why many consumers weren’t receiving the new naira notes, Okafor disclosed that the CBN had distributed approximately N4.5 billion of them to commercial banks in the state between Thursday and Friday.

In addition, he voiced worry that some state banks were impeding the CBN’s attempts to force the distribution of the new naira notes by keeping them in their bank vaults.

“We have been keeping an eye on the distribution of the new naira note, and our assessment is not positive. According to him, one of the banks we visited was not issuing the new naira notes.