Zamfara: NOA begins public sensitisation on new Naira notes

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has begun sensitisation to the need by the public to deposit old Naira notes in their bank accounts.

NOA officials visited Churches, Mosques and motor parks to enlighten the people about the economic benefits of the CBN measure.

The NOA Acting Director in Zamfara, Mallam Aminu Ibrahim, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Gusau on Friday.

Ibrahim said the exercise was to enlighten the public on the dangers of continuous keeping of old Naira notes in their possessions beyond Jan. 31 as the date remained unchanged.

He urged the people to discard all rumours circulating on the shift of the date for depositing old notes of N1000, N500 and N200 as legal tender.

He added that the commercial banks had been directed to cooperate by the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure that citizens deposited their old money, adding that they had been directed to stop dispensing old cash notes to customers.

Ibrahim said that NOA was out to reach communities of Zamfara through media and public places, to ensure that everyone complied with the cashless policy.

A resident of the state, Farida Ismail, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, expressed concern over the continuous dispensing of old Naira notes by commercial banks.

According to Ismail, until now, banks still paid customers in old notes and this may deceive many people in believing the rumours about the shift in the date beyond Jan. 31.