According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has finally directed commercial banks to dispense old currency notes and to also receive same as deposits from customers.
“The Governor, Dr Godwin Emefiele, personally confirmed the above to me during a phone conversation on Sunday night. Residents of Anambra are therefore advised to freely accept and transact their businesses with the old currency notes (N200; N500; and N1,000) as well as the new notes,” Soludo added.
He called on residents to report any bank that refuses to accept deposits of the old notes.
“Anambra State Government will not only report such a bank to the CBN, but will also immediately shut down the defaulting branch.”
Efforts to get the reaction of CBN to Soludo’s claim proved abortive as the spokesman, Isa Abdulmumin, could not be reached.
Sources at the Apex bank told our reporter that there have been several virtual meetings between Emefiele and the bank chiefs leading up to Sunday evening and there are strong indications that the news is true.
The CBN has at the time of this story not debunked the claim of Governor Soludo.