The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office in Marina, Lagos, has been taken over by a large crowd, consisting of persons trying to swap old currencies in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
CBN had opened a portal for individuals who have old Naira notes to deposit them by filling up forms, despite the adjournment of the case on the legality of the February 10, 2023 deadline for the Naira Swap to February 22 by the Supreme Court.
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.
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He also ordered the CBN to recirculate old N200 notes until April 10.
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 the directive.
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 on the queue.
He said it was also difficult for many persons to generate the code needed for depositing money on the CBN website.