Deposit Money Banks (DMB) on Saturday, continued to collect old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers, contrary to a statement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The banks include GTB, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Sterling Bank.
TheCable verifies the collection of old notes at different local banks.
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.
Once a customer’s name is called, he/she is allowed to proceed into the bank.
The bank official said they would stop attending to customers by 2 pm.
Meanwhile, some customers outside the bank lamented that they were unable to generate a reference number from the CBN portal.
“I have been here since 10 am. This is almost 2 pm. 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.
GTB branches in Ikorodu and Airport Road were also attending to customers.
At a Sterling Bank branch in Ikorodu, TheCable noted that only those who have generated the CBN reference number were being allowed in.
A security officer at a United Bank for Africa (UBA) branch in the area said the firm has stopped attending to people for the day.
“We will open again on Monday”, he said.
Also, in contradiction to the CBN statement, the Cash Return Portal of the CBN directed people with old N500 and old N1,000 notes below N500,000 to go to their bank to make the deposit
On Friday, a CBN report noted that the CBN had ordered banks to start collecting the old N500 and N1,000 notes from members of the public.
The apex bank fixed the maximum amount they could collect from individuals at N500,000.
However, the CBN swiftly issued a counter statement through the Director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, saying it did not give such a directive.
Meanwhile, at the time of the rebuttal the procedure on how to return the said old N500 and N1,000 notes was on the CBN website.
