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CBN Accuses Banks In Port Harcourt Of Hoarding New Naira Notes, May Go After Financial Institutions - INDEPENDENT
P/HARCOURT – With just a few days to deadline of the ending the use of the old naira notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has berated commercial banks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State over their refusal to dispense the sum of N4.5billion newly redesigned naira notes distributed to various financial institutions in the state.
The CBN Branch Controller in Rivers State, Maxwell Okafor spoke when he led an enforcement monitoring team on the new redesigned bank notes to some commercial banks and markets in the state capital weekend.
Okafor stated that the apex bank had disbursed about N4.5bn new redesigned naira notes to commercial banks in Rivers State and wondered why many bank customers there had yet to get the new naira notes from Automated Teller Machines, ATM.
Okafor said the attitude of the commercial banks in Port Harcourt and its environs was deliberately frustrating the efforts of the CBN in implementing the disbursement of the new notes by hoarding it in their vaults.
He urged the banks to stop dispensing old notes, adding that another N2billion of the new notes will be injected into commercial banks in Port Harcourt within the next 24hours.
“We have been monitoring the dispensing of the new naira note and the impression we have is not encouraging. We have visited some banks and one of the banks we visited was not dispensing the new naira notes.
“Their ATM machines are not functioning even as early as the time we came. We had it on a good authority that the banks received money from CBN. Some of these banks received money yesterday (Thursday) and the money is still in their vaults.”
Okafor said: “in some of the banks their ATM are down. So there is no explanation for their actions and CBN has warned that there will be serious consequences for hoarding this new naira note and giving it to special customers.
“Many of the banks we visited are not dispensing the new naira note. On Thursday we injected about N2.5 billion into the banks in Port Harcourt and in less than 24 hours we have injected another N2 billion.
“And many of the ATM’s are not dispensing so it’s a situation we want to look at very critically and there will be consequences.
“We stopped dispensing old currencies since the new currency came out. There is no reason why the ATM should not dispense money and the money they collected are in the vault.
“There is pressure from this banks to collect more money so what did they do with the ones they collected. What did they do with the N2.5 billion and N2 billion they collected? We are going to escalate this matter and we will consult with the management on the next line of action.”
Also speaking, CBN Deputy Director of Strategy, Emenike Eleonu, said there was no doubt that some banks were trying to frustrate the work of the apex bank, adding that some of the banks have the new naira notes but are not dispensing it to customers, assuring that there will be repercussions as the CBN will take up matters with the bank managements.
“Almost N3 billion of the new notes was injected into banks in Port Harcourt yesterday (Thursday). But they are not dispensing it. In one of the banks we visited, our presence made them to hurriedly load their ATM machines with the new currency.”
Some of the banks visited by the monitoring team were First bank, Access bank, GTB, UBA, Zenith and Keystone banks. The team also visited some markets in Port Harcourt where traders and buyers were sensitized on the new notes.