CBN to banks: Accept old series, lower denominations of dollars

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed banks and foreign exchange (FX) dealers to stop rejecting old series and lower denominations of dollars.

In a circular dated June 27, 2024, and signed by Solaja Mohammed Olayemi, CBN’s acting director, currency operations department, the apex bank said all relevant parties must adhere to and comply with the instruction, emphasising its disapproval of selective acceptance of deposits.

CBN, in the circular released on Tuesday, said it discovered old series and lower denominations of dollars are still being rejected during a consumer market survey.

“The outcome of the consumer market intelligence conducted by the Bank revealed the continued rejection of old/lower denominations of United States (US) Dollar bills by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other authorized forex dealers,” CBN said.

“Kindly be reminded that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) circular referenced COD/DIR/INT/CIR/001/002 and dated 9th April 2021 which explicitly frowned at this selective acceptance of deposit is still in force and must be adhered and complied with by all relevant parties.”

CBN said all banks and authorised FX dealers “should henceforth accept both old series and lower denominations of United States Dollars (USD) that are legal tender for deposit from their customers”.

The financial regulator warned that it will not hesitate to sanction any bank or authorised forex dealer who refuses to accept old series or lower denominations of dollars from their customers.

CBN also advised all authorised forex dealers to refrain from defacing or stamping dollars, as such notes often fail authentication tests during processing and sorting.