Commercial banks ignore CBN, collect old N500, N1000 from customers

Commercial banks on Saturday started collecting the old N500 and N1,000 notes from their customers and hope to continue the exercise on Monday.

The came despite the denial by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it did not direct banks to collect the old naira notes.

Many customers who went to their banks on Saturday in Lagos, for instance, were seen being attended to.

It was also observed that the cash return portal of the CBN directed people with old N500 and old N1,000 notes below N500,000 to go to their banks to make the deposit.

TheCable reported long queues were seen in front of banks as customers attempted to gain access into the banking halls.

At Access Bank in Megida Bus Stop, Ayobo, a bank official was calling out the names of customers from a sheet of paper and once a customer’s name was called, the person was allowed to proceed into the bank.

The bank official said they would stop attending to customers by 2pm.

TheCable also reported that some customers outside the bank lamented that they were unable to generate a reference number from the CBN portal.

“I have been here since 10am. This is almost 2pm. The CBN portal is saying validation error. I can’t generate the reference code so I can’t go in,” a customer, simply identified as John, said.

At branches of Access Bank and First Bank in Iyana Ipaja, customers were allowed to deposit their old notes.

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) branches in Ikorodu and Airport Road were also attending to customers.

At a Sterling Bank branch in Ikorodu, TheCable observed that only those who have generated the CBN reference number were being allowed in.
At the time of visit (2pm), a small group of customers at a Access Bank branch in Ikorodu were waiting to get attended to under a canopy outside the bank.

“They opened in the morning to get collect the notes. But now they’ve closed,” a customer said.

Many of the customers were trying to generate the CBN reference number on their phones — a prerequisite for entering the bank.