January 31 Deadline: CBN Creates Cash Swap Centres For Rural Dwellers as Agents Storm LGAs Monday

With a view to meeting up with its January 31 deadline for the return of the N1000, N500 and N200 old naira notes to the banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has inaugurated Cash Swap Centres across the 774 Local Government Ares of the country.

Investors King had reported that a few days before the expiration of the deadline, banks and Automated Teller Machines were still dispensing old notes despite warnings of sanctions by the CBN.

According to the apex bank, these newly created centres would be controlled by some officials of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Mobile Money Operators, Super Agents and other financial agents.

These agents are expected to attend to people in rural communities, especially those whose locations are far from urban areas where most banks are situated for them to return their old cash.

Also, Nigerians, especially rural dwellers who don’t operate bank accounts could approach these agents for the purpose of opening a wallet for their money to be kept.

The establishment of these centres was contained in a circular issued by the apex bank on Saturday.

The CBN, in the circular signed by Haruna Mustafa and Musa Jimoh, Directors of Banking Supervision and Payments Systems respectively and dated January 20, 2023, it indicated that the Cash SWAp Centres would commence operations on Monday, January 23.

According to the circular addressed to Mobile Money Operators, Super Agents and other Agents,  the exercise would enable rural dwellers to seamlessly change their old Naira Notes for the redesigned ones and to also save them the stress of traveling far.

The circular reads, “In furtherance of its Naira Redesign policy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sustained its nationwide awareness/sensitization programmes, enforced speedy collection of the new notes at CBN branches by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and mandated issuance of the new notes through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to ensure distribution is fair, transparent and evenly spread across the country.

“In addition to these measures and in recognition of the need to maximise the channels through which underserved and rural communities can exchange their Naira, the Bank is launching a cash swap programme in partnership with Super Agents & DMBs. The programme enables citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old Naira notes for redesigned notes.”

On how the centres would operate, CBN said the old N1000, N500, N200 notes can be exchanged for the newly redesigned notes and/or the existing lower denominations (N100, N50 and N20, etc) which remain legal tender, adding that  “the agent shall exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person. Amounts above N10,000 may be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy. BVN, NIN, or Voter’s card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible.”

The apex bank further noted that “to promote financial inclusion, this service is also available to anybody without a bank account.”

It said that agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework, adding that, “this will ensure that this category of the populace are able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost.”

According to the circular, agents shall create awareness to customers and sensitise them on opening wallets/bank accounts and the various channels for conducting electronic transactions.

It added that designated agents are eligible to collect the redesigned notes from DMBs in line with the Revised Cash Withdrawal Limit policy and that agents are also permitted to charge cash- out fees for the cash swap transactions.

Announcing that agents are prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service, the CBN directed the agents to ensure that they render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions.

It also mandated DMBs to, in turn, account for same to the CBN on a weekly basis.

The CBN stated that principals of the service including Super Agents, MMOs, DMBs shall be held accountable for their agents’ non-adherence to the above guidelines.

It informed Nigerians in the rural communities to watch out for the Cash Swap agents in their neighbourhood as from Monday, adding that it would ensure that the centres were monitored for effective implementation.