The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Bauchi says it allocates N30 million new naira notes daily to each branch of commercial banks in the state to increase customers’ access to the new notes.

CBN official Abdulkadir Jibrin said this while monitoring banks in Bauchi on Monday to ensure residents have access to the new banknotes. He said the exercise aimed to make the banknotes available in banks and to exchange old notes easily.

“Only N10,000 and below could be exchanged per person, and if the amount is more than that, one should open a bank wallet. Daily each branch across the state receives N30 million to ensure their automated teller machines (ATMs) are stocked with cash for individuals to withdraw,” he said.

He urged the public to extend the deadline to February 10 to deposit their old currencies with banks to avoid financial loss.

“It’s just a window for the citizens that are yet to take their money into their accounts to do that and then those that have N10,000 or less. Our committee would continue to reach out to localities to ask them to bring out their old notes and exchange them with the new ones,” he said.

He explained that the monitoring exercise entailed checking ATMs to ensure that the new naira notes were loaded for customers to withdraw.

According to him, the ATMs will give people the opportunity to have access to money, adding that the officials of the apex bank track the volume of disbursement through the ATMs.

He urged the public to report to the CBN if any bank refused to open for operations or failed to disburse the new notes through their ATMs.

A Bauchi resident, Mr Aliyu Zarami, commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime for extension of the deadline to February 10. He urged the apex bank to sanction banks or agents violating any rule or directive of issuing new notes.

Another resident, Nafisa Mohammed, lauded the extension and said it would reduce tension and allow people to deposit their old notes and have new ones for transactions.

“The banks should do something about the long queue of depositors of the old naira notes,” she said.

A cleric, Ustaz Saminu Ahmed, also commended the regime for extending the deadline.

“But the rural communities need more than one month. The date should be extended to two months to enable those in the grassroots to deposit their old notes,” Mr Ahmed said.

(NAN)