The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday advised Nigerians to exchange their old naira notes at Point of Sale (PoS) machines and open savings accounts.

This is as Nigerians continue to groan over steep charges ( at least 10 per cent for each withdrawn amount) imposed by PoS operators across the country.

Rasheedat Mangunu, the bank’s director of protection, gave the advice during the monitoring exercise of some PoS super-agents in Ilorin.

The CBN said it distributed PoS to 30,000 super-agents, with a cash sum of N500,000 each, to ease the naira cash swap on January 25.

Ms Mangunu said that in the last week, there had been progress in the money swap due to their enlightenment talks and accredited PoS agents.

She called on the people of Kwara, especially those in rural areas, to make judicious use of the super-agents and open a bank account with less stress.

“People can easily open a bank account through the PoS super-agents, with just a National Identity Card and save their old money in their accounts, without stress.

“Our super-agents will deposit all your old Naira notes with no charges and your money will be secure in your various bank accounts,” she said.

At one of the PoS centres visited in the Osere area, Ilorin, Sadiq AbdulRasheed, a user, said he was able to exchange his old naira notes without charges.

However, at Isale Bani, the Alore area of Ilorin, many residents complained of the inability to exchange their notes due to the unavailability of new notes.

An agent in the area, Saheed AbdulRazaq, explained that he had been exchanging notes with the residents since last week, but could not meet up with their demands.

“I started exchanging the notes with the sum of N500,000 given to me by CBN last week and continued since then, but all the people in the area are clamouring for more new notes.

“Their demand for new notes is more than the capacity that I can withdraw from the bank. I urge CBN to give more directives to commercial banks to be able to withdraw more,” he said.

Responding, Ms Mangunu assured that all financial institutions would be engaged and all agents would get enough cash for their operations.

She said enough money had been allocated to all financial institutions in Ilorin and people should be rest assured to have access to their money.

(NAN)