Some commercial banks in the country have resumed the dispensing of the phased out N500 and N1000 notes to their customers.
This follows the Supreme Court judgment which extended the validity of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) currency redesign policy to December.
A seven-member panel of justices presided by Justice Inyang Okoro, had on Friday, in a unanimous judgement, held that the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the CBN for the redesigning and withdrawal of old notes of N200, N500 and N1,000, without consultation with the states, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the National Council of State and other stakeholders, was unconstitutional.
The apex court also pointed out that no reasonable notice was given before the implementation of the policy as provided under the CBN Act.
According to a report by Daily Trust on Monday, some deposit money banks in Kano and Abuja have commenced paying out the old N500 and N1000 notes.
The report indicated that while some branches of Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) issued out old notes, some others like Polaris bank in Abuja had not commenced as of the time this report was filed.
A member of staff confided in a Daily Trust reporter that only the old N200 notes were still being issued, “as we do not have any new directive on what to do yet.”
The report quoted sources at GTB to have said they received a directive from their management to begin paying old notes in their vault.
“The problem is that taking the old notes from customers will require the CBN form as we don’t have any directive in that regard,” the source said.
The CBN is yet to issue a directive to banks to implement the Supreme Court judgement.
