On Monday, Nigerians woke up to a Twitter post from the former Central Bank of Nigeria CBN governor, now the executive governor of Anambra state, professor Charles Soludo directing the citizen of Anambra state to start accepting the old N500 and N1,000 notes as legal tender. In his tweet, he recalled his discussion with the current CBN governor, Dr. Godwin Emefiele, and the assurance he got from him that commercial banks have been directed by the Apex bank to accept the old notes from their customers and also dispense the same across-the-counter and on their ATMs.
This gave a ray of hope to Nigerian whose economic activities have been badly affected by the scarcity of Naira notes and the continuous silence of the Federal Government and the CBN 10 days after the Supreme Court judgment extending the validity of the old Naira notes till December 31st, 2023
But in reaction to the tweet by the former CBN governor, The CBN Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Dr. Issa Abdulmumin in a chart with Daily Post on Monday, clarified that there is no statement from the apex bank telling commercial banks to dispense and accept the old N500 and N1000 notes from Nigerians.
According to him, “Governor Charles Soludo’s statement emanates from him, not the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Central Bank has not issued any statement directing banks on the collection of old Naira notes. I am sure sometime in the future, the bank will issue a statement”.
