Banks begin payment of old N500, N1,000 notes

Some commercial banks have started paying customers old N500 and N1,000 notes on Monday, March 6.

Some of the banks that paid the old notes to customers on Monday include Sterling Bank, Union Bank, Access Bank, and GTBank.

Sources said each customer gets a maximum of N20,000 over the counter in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano and Abuja.

It was a partial compliance as other banks like FirstBank, Zenith, UBA, Polaris and others are still awaiting the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

A bank official in Lagos confirmed to The Star the payment of the old notes to customers.

The old notes are yet to be loaded to the ATM.

“We have started paying customers, but with the old notes. The maximum a customer can get is N20,000,” the official told The Star.

The decision followed the judgement of the Supreme Court that the old naira notes remain legal tender till December 2023.

The CBN is yet to issue official position on the cash policy after the apex bank’s verdict.

The Star