By Mujidat Oyewole

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday advised Nigerians to exchange their old Naira notes at Point of Sale (POS) machines and open Savings account.

The CBN Director of Protection, Mrs Rasheedat Mangunu, gave the advice during the monitoring exercise of some POS super-agents in Ilorin.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CBN distributed POS to 30,000 super-agents, with a cash sum of N500,000 each, to ease Naira cash swap on Jan. 25.

Mangunu said that in the last one week, there had been progress in the money swap due to their enlightenment talks and accredited POS agents.

She added that the extension of deadline for spending the old Naira notes had given people more opportunity to exchange their notes and deposit old notes in their accounts.

She called on the people of Kwara, especially those at the rural areas, to make judicious use of the super-agents and open a bank account with less stress.

“People can easily open a bank account through the POS super-agents, with just National Identity Card and save their old money in their accounts, without stress.

“Our super-agents will deposit all your old Naira notes with no charges and your money will be secure in your various bank accounts,” she said.

NAN reports that at one of the POS centres visited at Osere Area, Ilorin, Mr Sadiq AbdulRasheed, a user, said that he was able to exchange his old Naira notes without charges.

However, at Isale Bani, Alore Area of Ilorin, many residents complained of inability to exchange their notes due to unavailability of the new notes.

Speaking with the agent at the area, Mr Saheed AbdulRazaq, explained that he had been exchanging notes for the residents since last week, but could not meet up with their demands.

“I started exchanging the notes with the sum of N500,000 given to me by CBN last week and continued since then, but all the people in the area are clamouring for more new notes.

“Their demand for new notes is more than the capacity that I can withdraw from bank. I urge CBN to give more directives to commercial banks to be able to withdraw more,” he said.

Responding, the CBN director of protection, assured that all financial institutions would be engaged and all agents would get enough cash for their operations.

She said that enough money had been allocated to all financial institutions in Ilorin and people should be rest assured to have access to their money.

Mangunu however said that in case of any problem or complain, people should contact the CBN through: 08176656721 or 07080650991, and email address: newnaira@cbn.gov.ng. (NAN)

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