Naira redesign: CBN pushes for more adoption of e-payment as January 31 deadline approaches

Most Nigerians have been caught in a fix as they try to beat the January 31 deadline set by the CBN to return all their old N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes as the notes will seize to be legal tender in the country from that date.

While on a monitoring exercise to inspect the CBN policy on using Automated Teller Machines for the dispensing of the new naira notes, the apex bank team led by the Director, Legal Services and Legal Adviser of the CBN, Mr. Sallam Alada, gave the advice to bank customers as he reiterated the bank’s stand on the development.

Before now, most Nigerians had focused more on the use of cash for transactions and according to the CBN, the amount of cash in circulation was not encouraging to the bank’s policies.

Last year, the apex bank lamented about the growing amount of physical cash outside the vaults of the CBN.

The apex bank while decrying significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, revealed that over 80% of the nation’s currency in circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks, a development which has continued to pose threats for Nigeria.

According to Alada, “The essence of this programme is to encourage cashless. For Nigerians who don’t have access, there’s USSD where you can use a non-browsing phone to do some of these transactions. This country needs to move forward, join other nations where cash is no longer the king.”

He went ahead to encourage Nigerians to make use of other payment channels like electronic banking, e-naira, and money transfer from phones among others.