The Central Bank of Nigeria has excluded mobile money/Point of Sales agents in Abuja and Lagos from its newly launched cash swap programme.
The development came as the January 31 deadline for the phasing out of the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes approaches.
In a Frequently Asked Questions document released to selected agents and obtained, the CBN provided some guidelines for the cash swap programme.
According to the document, only five banks have been approved to engage in the programme. They are: Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, and First City Monument Bank.
It read in part, “Not all agents can participate. This is open to only selected agents profiled by the super agent/MMO/bank and submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria and participating banks (Access, Zenith, UBA, First, FCMB).”
On the number of states selected for the programme, it read, “Selected agents in all the 36 states (except Lagos state and FCT, Abuja). Lagos and Abuja agents are excluded from this.”
The agents are also restricted from using the new notes for their regular transactions, only for the programme.
