Several locations at the offices of Nigeria’s Apex bank were swamped with large crowd, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Marina, Lagos.
They were mostly people trying to swap old currencies in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In his national broadcast on Wednesday, February 15, 2023, the President declared the old N500 and N1000 invalid as legal tender, directing Nigerians to take the notes to the CBN and designated locations.
President Buhari also ordered the CBN to recirculate old N200 notes until April 10.
Buhari’s broadcast was greeted with reactions especially criticisms from some governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state had said old N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender in his state until the Supreme Court rules otherwise.
Bank officials are struggling to control the crowd at the Kaduna and Lagos CBN offices where they pleaded that depositors go home and return on Monday. A statement that was rejected by many who have had issues transacting with the old notes.
Some customers arrived CBN branches as early as 6am yet met lengthy queues, with everyone holding onto their tallies.
Many have also encountered problems while attempting to generate the codes from the CBN website, without which the CBN will not receive their deposits.
Details shortly…