The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has barred mobile money/Point of Sales (POS) agents in Abuja and Lagos from participating in its newly launched cash swap program.
According to the Punch, this information was communicated in a document containing frequently asked questions that were made available to a select group of operators.
This comes as the Apex Bank announced that the old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes will be phased out by January 31.
The CBN provided some guidelines for the cash swap program in the document.
It was stated that only five banks had been approved to participate in the program.
Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, and First City Monument Bank are the names of the banks.
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.
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 the operator (super agent/MMO/bank) of. That is where your agent details will be submitted for verification when you get there to collect the new notes.
Before the new notes can be issued, each agent’s name, BVN number, and operator’s name must be provided.
The bank would also verify the agent’s picture and fingerprint, according to the document.
According to the document, an agent must keep a record of the customer’s Know-Your-Customer information, which includes the customer’s name, phone number, bank, account number, and amount.