CBN intensifies awareness on new currency notes, visits Olu of Warri, markets

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has intensified it’s sensitisation and awareness campaigns on the redesigned new Naira notes in Warri.

A CBN team on Friday visited the palace of the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse 111 who was unavailable, and some major markets in the metropolis.

Mr Sunny Daibo, the team leader of the apex bank and representative of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was received by the chiefs at the palace of the Olu of Warri.

Daibo, who is also the Deputy Director of Finance of the spex bank, noted

that traditional institutions remained critical component in the sensitisation drive.

Daibo said the traditional institutions were closer to the rural dwellers, adding that they could be used to educate the people on the Naira redesign programme.

Daibo said that their deployment to Warri was to carry out advocacy on the redesigned currency and ensure

compliance in the disbursement of the new currency to the public.

The team leader disclosed that the advocacy was being carried out simultaneously in all the senatorial zones across the country.

He, however, solicited for the support and the cooperation of the royal institutions in Delta towards ensuring the success of the policy.

Daibo urged the palace to help reach the people, especially those in the creeks, to remind them that the old notes being withdrawn from circulation would cease to be legal tender after Jan. 31.

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He also promised to relay the various issues raised concerning the redesigned Naira notes and people’s complaints to the CBN headquarters.

Responding, the traditional chiefs, led by Chief Yaya Pesu, thanked the Federal Government for redesigning the Naira and also the CBN for embarking on an advocacy drive.

The chiefs, one after the other, picked issues on the modalities the apex bank had adopted since its conception of the idea to its execution.

They said that they were still being inundated with old Naira notes across the counters in commercial banks.

The chiefs lamented the unavailability of the new notes in commercial banks and ATM outlets in the Warri metropolis.

They, however, wondered if the Jan. 31 deadline for the circulation of the old notes would be feasible.

On his part, the Oluaye of Warri kingdom, Chief Eugene Ikomi urged the CBN to review the Jan. 31 deadline upwards, noting that “till now, so many people have not seen the new Naira notes in Warri and environs.

Also, Chief Brown Mene, the Ogwa-Olusan of Warri kingdom, urged the apex bank to activate it’s inspectorate unit to ensure that the commercial banks adhered to it’s directives.

“There is a need for the CBN to sit up and do something about the refusal of the commercial banks to comply with it’s directives,” Mene said.

The CBN team later moved to the popular Igbudu Market to sensitise traders to the redesigned notes and assured them of the availability of the new currency.

The Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that the five-man team had on Thursday, visited the Main Market in Warri South to kick-start the awareness drive.

CBN intensifies awareness on new currency notes, visits Olu of Warri, markets