£20/£50 Note: First Bank joins WEMA in January 2022 deadline

The Bank of England is withdrawing its £20 and £50 old paper notes in place of new polymer design.

HILLARY ESSIEN • November 9, 2021

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First Bank of Nigeria has given its customers until the 1st of January 2022 to deposit £50 and £20 notes.

“To facilitate the return of the old notes in circulation, we will stop accepting deposits of the £50 and £20 notes in all our branches from 1 January 2022,” The Bank said in an email to its customers seen by Peoples Gazette.

Following the Bank of England’s announcement that it would be withdrawing the £20 and £50 notes after September 2022, Nigerian banks such as First Bank and WEMA have given their customers a January 2022 deadline to deposit the notes.

The Gazette had reported in early November that the Bank of England will be changing its notes from paper to polymer to make them harder to counterfeit and more durable.

The bank announced that it is in the process of withdrawing the paper equivalents of the banknotes and with the release of its new polymer £20 on February 20, 2020, and the polymer £50 note released on June 23, 2021.

The polymer banknotes would provide a new set of security features, and make it difficult to counterfeit. It also has haptic elements that make them accessible to the blind and partially sighted.

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