The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged Nigerians, especially traders, to handle the Naira notes with care, saying that the country’s currency should be seen as a symbol of the national pride.
The Assistant Director, Currency Operation Department of the CBN, Mr. Benedict Maduagwu, who stated this in Akure, Ondo State, during a CBN fair under the theme, ‘Promoting Financial and Economic Development’, said there is the need for the citizens to imbibe the culture of handling the naira note with care.
The apex bank, Maduagwu said, has begun sensitisation programme for the traders and youths in the State, to promote proper handling of the naira notes, and how to properly operate with commercial banks without hitches.
He stressed that the law guiding the handling of naira note is still subsisting, adding that its violation would attract jail terms.
He said that anyone caught mutilating the naira notes is liable to five years imprisonment, or option of N50,000 fine.
He said: “Government uses taxpayers’ money to print these naira notes, so it is unfair for us to be rough-handling the notes.
“If you continue to spoil the naira notes, there will be no much money for the commercial banks to give out as loans to your customers and that will affect our economy.
“Do not squeeze the naira notes; do not write on the notes, naira notes put under the clothes because of bacterial infection to the body. Anybody selling naira notes is an enemy of Nigeria.”
He assured that the CBN would commence the circulation of the lower denomination of Naira notes just as he called on commercial banks to load their Automated Teller Machines (ATM) with lower denomination to assist market men and women, adding that the exercise would be carried out periodically.
”We want to appeal to the commercial banks to be putting smaller denomination inside their ATMs in order to end the scarcity of smaller denomination in the country,” Maduagwu said.
The officer in charge of Consumer Protection Department of the CBN, Mr. Oludamola Atanda, advised bank customers to always lodge complaints and seek redress at their various banks if there is an infraction or infringement on their personal bank accounts, especially excessive charges.