UBA, Fidelity, Others Extend Workdays As CBN Insists On January 31 Deadline For Depositing Old Naira Notes

Many commercial banks in Nigeria, including UBA Plc and Fidelity, among others have extended their workdays to weekends for customers to deposit their old naira notes.

This is even as CBN has intensified action to ensure that those in rural areas are not left out or suffer losses occassioned by the policy.

Besides advising members of the public to visit the porter, CBN was believed to have diepersed staff to rural areas for direct exchange.

However, the banks’ action is in response to the deadline set for the collection of old naira notes by CBN governor Godwin Emefiele.

MetroBusinessNews (MBN) had reported that CBN on Thursday, January 26, 2023 had insisted that the January 31 deadline for the old notes to stop being legal tender remains unchanged.

This has caused panic in the country as some percentage of Nigeria’s unbanked population may lose their cash savings following CBN’s requirement that old notes could only be exchanged through an existing bank account.

But, UBA Plc, Fidelity bank and other financial institutions have gone ahead to notify their customers to visit their branches on Saturday and Sunday to deposit old Naira notes.“This is to notify the general public that our branches will be open Saturday and Sunday just to receive cash,” one of the banks said in a statement similar to what other financial institutions also sent to their customers.

Specifically, while UBA says Saturday and Sunday services will commence between 9am to 3pm and 10am to 2pm respectively, Fidelity will open to public between 9am to 4pm and 11am to 3pm respectively.

“All old notes of series 200, 500 and 1000 will cease to be in use from the 31st of January.”Amid a public outcry and protest over the slow low circulation of the redesigned 200, 500, 1000 notes, CBN insists that will not not extend the Tuesday, January 31 deadline to phase out the old notes.

Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) and a host of other stakeholders have expressed concerns and made appeals for CBN to extend the period for the currency swap as well as review of the cashless policy.

The House of Representatives and the Senate in separate resolutions, on Thursday, asked CBN to extend the deadline by six months till July 31.
ALSO READ:Nigerian Senate Asks CBN To Extend Deadline For Returning Old Notes
However, CBN governor Emefiele insists that Nigerians had enough time to deposit the old notes to collect the new ones despite a shortage in supply for new notes by the banks.

“The reason is because we feel 100 days should be enough for those who have the old currency to deposit the money in the banks. And we took every measure to ensure that all the banks were open to receive all old currencies. 100 days, we believe, is more than adequate.”