Crowd ‘takes over’ CBN Office in Lagos

There is currently a large crowd at the office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Marina, Lagos. The crowd consists of persons trying to swap old currencies in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari. In his national broadcast on Wednesday, Buhari declared that old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased being […]

There is currently a large crowd at the office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Marina, Lagos.

The crowd consists of persons trying to swap old currencies in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In his national broadcast on Wednesday, Buhari declared that old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased being legal tender, directing Nigerians to take the notes to the CBN and designated places.

He also ordered the CBN to recirculate old N200 notes until April 10.

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Criticisms followed Buhari’s comment, especially from some governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state had said old N500 and N1000 notes remain legal tender in his state until Supreme Court rules otherwise.

Meanwhile, officials are struggling to control the crowd at the Lagos CBN office. At a point, they asked the depositors to take the old notes to their commercial banks, but the people rejected it.

Commenting on the situation, a social media user identified as Malik said his brother got to CBN in Marina around 6am in the morning and he was number 420 in the queue.

He said it was also difficult for many persons to generate the code needed for depositing money on CBN website.