Central Bank of Nigeria has said residents in rural area and areas that has no Banks cannot swap old naira notes for the new notes via its cash swap programme.
The Acting Spokesperson of CBN, Isa Abdulmumin, said, noting that the programme had fulfilled its mandate.
He added, “The programme has stopped. The cash swap was not in perpetuity and has a lifeline.”
Furthermore, the Association of the Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria had described the programme as ineffective, insisting that participation by stakeholders was minimal.
CBN had said the cash swap programme was channeled at enabling citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for the new naira notes.
In other to promote financial inclusion, CBN excluded mobile money Point of Sales agents in Abuja and Lagos, maintaining that the service was available for anybody without a bank account.
The Central Bank Of Nigeria also noted, only N10,000 should be released per customer under the cash swap programme.
But in an assessment, AMMBAN National Publicity Officer, Oluwasegun Elegbade, noted that the recent attacks on banks would have been averted only if the programme fulfilled its purpose.
He said, “The programme has not been really effective as it should. 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 added.
By Safrat Gani
