Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned Deposit Money Banks (DMB) and forex (FX) dealers to stop rejecting old series and lower denominations of the United States Dollar (USD).

The apex bank gave this warning in a circular signed by Ahmed Umar, director of currency operations department at the CBN, on April 9.

CBN directed banks and FX dealers to accept both old series and lower denominations of USD that are legal tender for deposit from their customers.

“Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has in recent times been inundated with complaints from members of the public on the rejection of old/lower denominations of US dollar bills by Deposit money banks (DMBs) and other authorised forex dealers,” the circular read.

“All DMBs/authorised forex dealers should henceforth accept both old series and lower denominations of United States Dollars (USD) that are legal tender for deposit from their customers.

“CBN will not hesitate to sanction any DMB or other authorised forex dealers who refuse to accept old series/lower denominations of US dollar bills from their customers.”

CBN also advised authorised forex dealers to refrain from stamping USD banknotes.

“In addition, all authorised forex dealers are advised to desist from defacing/stamping US Dollar banknotes as such notes always fail authentication test during processing/sorting.”

The Cable