The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) newly-introduced cash swap programme kicks off today across all the local government areas in the country, to facilitate the circulation of its new naira notes.
The initiative is aimed at enabling citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for redesigned notes.
Accordingly, the old N1,000, N500, N200 notes can be exchanged for the newly redesigned notes and the existing lower denominations – N100, N50 and N20, and others will remain legal tender until January 31.
The CBN, in a circular on Friday, jointly signed by the Directors of Banking Supervision, Haruna Mustafa; and Payments System, Musa Jimoh, respectively, said the programme is being executed in partnership with super agents and deposit money banks (DMBs).
The circular was addressed to all DMBs, mobile money operators (MMOs), super agents and agents.
Super agents are companies licensed by the CBN to recruit agents for the purpose of agency banking.
Agents are also permitted to charge cash-out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service.
The circular reads in part: “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.
“To promote financial inclusion, this service is also available to anybody without a bank account. Agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. 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.”
Agents, who would be readily identifiable in all local governments, particularly those in the rural areas, are also to sensitise customers on opening wallets/bank accounts and the various channels for conducting electronic transactions.
The circular continues: “Designated agents are eligible to collect the redesigned notes from DMBs in line with the revised cash withdrawal limit policy.
“Agents are also permitted to charge cash-out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service.
“Agents shall render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions. DMBs shall in turn render same to the CBN on a weekly basis.
“Principals (super agents, MMOs, DMBs) shall be held accountable for their agents’ adherence to the above guidelines.”
