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 by PUNCH correspondent on Monday, 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.”
It was also learnt that the agents are
restricted from using the new notes for their regular transactions, only for
the programme.
On where the agents can get the new notes,
the document added, “from one of these designated banks (Zenith, First Bank,
Access, UBA, FCMB). However, you must have a bank account with that bank and
your operators (super agent/MMO/bank) will have pre-registered you with the
bank where you have an account.”
It added, “you must go to the bank you have
informed operator (super agent/MMO/bank) of. That is where your agent details
will be submitted to for verification when you get there to collect the new
notes.”
Also, each agent’s name, BVN number, and
operator’s name are required before the new notes will be released.
The document added that the bank would also
verify the agent’s picture and finger print.
The document also noted that an agent is
expected to have a record of the customer’s Know-Your-Customer information,
which includes name, phone number, bank, account number and amount.
It was also noted that why there is no
restriction on how much a customer can deposit, only N10,000 can be released
per customer under the cash swap programme.
The CBN also urged the agents to open a
bank account or wallet for customers with bank accounts.