Yenagoa—The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has begun a cash swap policy in Bayelsa State through agents to distribute the newly redesigned notes to rural communities.
This is as the deadline for the return of old Naira notes draws closer.
According to the Vanguard, a Deputy Director, the Monetary Policy Department of CBN, Dr David Omorogie, who supervised the exercise in some old-generation banks in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, also disclosed that the nation’s apex bank has also instructed commercial banks to proceed to the rural communities in the state to open accounts, and issue Bank Verification Number, BVN, so that the people can deposit the money.
He however explained that whatever amount of the old notes that is brought for deposit, the maximum amount each individual can get from the money agents in the rural areas will be N10,000 till next week when there will be enough cash flow.
He said: “Because it is the last week of the implementation policy, what we are now doing is to interface with the money agents in all the eight local government areas so that they can take the money to the rural areas.
“What is exercise is all about is to enable each of the agents gets the money they need and go to the rural areas and give a maximum of N10,000 to each individual, then the balance each person is bringing as the old notes is now committed into their account, the money will be in their account but it is only N10,000 of the new notes that will given to each individual for now.
“What we are trying to do is to make sure we take all the old notes outside the system and then give a maximum of N10,000 for an individual in the rural areas to keep between now and the end of the week and from next week they can go to the ATMs or to their agents to get more money from the POS.
“So all the agents are been dispatched to the rural communities and CBN staff monitoring the conduct of this exercise across all the local government areas of the state.”
He said the exercise is to allay the fears of the rural dwellers, pointing out that the CBN will ensure that the rural dwellers do not lose the money they have laboured for.
Explaining further, Omorogie said: “This is meant to take care of those in the rural areas and even those that do not have bank account, for those that do not have bank accounts what we are telling them is get all the money you have to the agents so that they will bring it to the city.
“And the CBN has directed each of the banks to sent people to the rural areas and begin to create bank accounts for the people so there are so many things happening simultaneously
they will create an account for you and give you a Bank Verification Number, BVN, and your money can now be deposited into your account. This is to ensure that nobody should lose their money because they work for it.
“But from next obviously there will be enough money for everybody from next week.”
