CBN excludes Lagos, Abuja from new cash swap programme

With less than seven days to the January 31 deadline for the phasing out of the old N1000, N500 and N200 notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has excluded mobile money/Point of Sales agents in Abuja and Lagos from its newly launched cash swap programme.

The CBN when announcing the cash swap programme which began on Monday noted that the initiative was aimed at enabling citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for the redesigned notes.

National Daily gathered that only five banks have been approved to engage in the programme.

They are Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, and First City Monument Bank.

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On where the agents can get the new notes, the document added, “from one of these designated banks (Zenith, First Bank, Access, UBA, FCMB). However, you must have a bank account with that bank and your operators (Super-agent/MMO/bank) will have pre-registered you with the bank where you have an account.”

It added, “You must go to the bank you have informed the operator (Super-agent/MMO/bank) of. That is where your agent details will be submitted for verification when you get there to collect the new notes.”

Also, each agent’s name, BVN number, and operator’s name are required before the new notes will be released.

The document also noted that an agent is expected to have a record of the customer’s Know-Your-Customer information, which includes name, phone number, bank, account number and amount.

It was also noted that why there is no restriction on how much a customer can deposit, only N10,000 can be released per customer under the cash swap programme.

An agent can only get up to N500,000 new notes weekly for the programme.

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In a memo by Moniepoint to their agents, agents were asked to collect BVN, NIN, or voter’s card details from customers who paid new notes.

The memo read in part, “The Swap should be in the form of PoS withdrawals only of not more than N10,000 per person. Any withdrawal more than N10,000 per person should not be paid with new notes.

“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 National President, Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Mr. Victor Olojo, said a proposed meeting with the CBN did not hold.

He further noted that the agents were still actively involved in the process and a framework had been provided to guide the programme.