Naira Notes Deadline: Commercial Banks Extend Workdays to Weekends

Commercial banks in Nigeria have extended their workdays to weekends for customers to deposit their old naira notes.

The action is in response to the deadline set for the collection of old naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele.

With Emefiele and the CBN unwilling to extend the Tuesday, January 31 dead, many fear that over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s unbanked population may lose their cash savings following CBN’s requirement that old notes could only be exchanged through an existing bank account.

First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, and many others have all notified their customers to visit their branches on Saturday and Sunday to deposit their old Naira notes.

“This is to notify the general public that our branches will be open Saturday and Sunday just to receive cash,” one of the banks said in a statement similar to what other financial institutions also sent to their customers.

“All old notes of series 200, 500 and 1000 will cease to be in use from the 31st of January.”

Amid a public outcry and protest over the slow low circulation of the redesigned 200, 500, 1000 notes, CBN insists that will not not extend the Tuesday, January 31 deadline to phase out the old notes.