The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has bowed to pressure, saying the residents of rural and unbanked areas can no longer swap old notes for new ones through its cash swap programme.
CBN’s Acting Spokesperson, Isa Abdulmumin made this disclosure in an interview, where he said the programme had fulfilled its mandate.
“The programme has stopped. The cash swap was not in perpetuity and has a lifeline,’ he was quoted as saying.
CBN criticised for cash swap programme
BizWatch Nigeria understands that CBN recently introduced the cash swap programme to enable citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old Naira notes for redesigned notes.
The initiative took effect on Monday, January 23, 2023.
Displeased with this programme, the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents (AMMBA) said it’s ineffective, insisting that participation by stakeholders was minimal.
According to AMMBAN National Publicity Officer, Oluwasegun Elegbade, the recent mob attacks on banks would have been averted if the programme fulfilled its purpose.
“The programme has not been really effective as it should be. If it worked, we would not have witnessed the number of crises that erupted across the country.
“We expected more participation as far as the swap is concerned. The operators were given control over the whole thing with little monitoring.
“Without monitoring, many of the states just did as they wanted. The CBN only set up a monitoring team in less than five states. Overall, it wasn’t an effective initiative,’ he explained.
