Despite the Supreme Court judgement prolonging the lifespan of the old naira notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that they have ceased to be legal tender.
According to reports, CBN’s branch controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza, gave the indication on Monday.
He said that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes ceased to be legal tender on February 10.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is open to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria.
“Customers are free to come to the bank and deposit which they cannot do at the commercial banks anymore because the currency has ceased to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month,” Andaza said.
The senior CBN official said that any individual or institution still in possession of the old naira notes could still deposit them at branches of the apex bank in the 36 states of the federation.
“The management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the federation including FCT to deposit their money.
“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange,” Andaza said.