VIDEO: CBN Indicts Sterling Bank For Allegedly Hoarding 6 Million New Naira Notes In Ado Ekiti

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Sunday found N6 million new notes hoarded by a Sterling Bank Plc, Ado Ekiti branch on Bank Road, Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State capital.

The Apex bank Deputy Director, Oluwole Owoeye uncovered the hoarded newly redesigned currencies while leading a team of officials on a monitoring exercise in the state.

In a trending video viewed by Pulse9ja.com, Owoeye accused the bank of deliberately hoarding the new banknotes it had collected from the CBN for almost two weeks.

The Deputy Director, who said there was no excuse for keeping the money, insisted Deposit Money Banks are sabotaging the apex bank’s efforts in making the new notes available for Nigerians.

The CBN official said, “I am currently at Sterling Bank, on Bank Road as part of the new naira notes monitoring compliance with the guidelines by CBN. They have N6 million, which they collected from the bank for almost two weeks, they have not disbursed any. They said they are yet to configure their ATMs, I do not know why that and I have brought attention to the penalty clause of N1 million per day, because they have five ATMs here, they have no reason for keeping this money.

“The zonal service manager, Tunde Onipede promised that by 10:00am latest tomorrow (Monday), because I told him by latest 10:00 am I’ll be here and I want to see the machine dispensing this money.

“What is the name again? Olumide Owolabi (Service Manager, Ado) & Motunrayo Babayele. My name is Oluwole Owoeye and I am a deputy director of CBN.”

Recall that Nigerians have been facing a lot of hardship over the scarcity of the new naira notes in recent days.

This is as traders have also been lamenting low sales as customers also battle with poor network when they attempt to make transfers, causing many not to eventually buy the goods again.

The deadline for the validity of the old naira notes remains February 10, 2023, according to the CBN.