The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said it has imposed a sanction of N1 million on banks that refused to pick up the new naira notes for circulation to members of the public.

The Deputy Director, CBN, Adeleke Ademuyiwa, disclosed this during a sensitization programme at Ayegbaju market, Osogbo, Osun state, Friday.

Responding to the allegation by market women that some banks in the state have not been loading the new N200, N500, and N1,000 notes in their ATMs, Ademuyiwa said the CBN is monitoring to ensure strict compliance.

He disclosed that the CBN has provided enough notes to make the new naira available but some banks have refused to pick them.

He said, “we are here to sensitize market women to the newly redesigned naira notes and to sensitize them to the e-naira.

“As of today, the central bank has printed enough notes of N200, N500, and N1,000. But what we discovered is that most of the banks that are supposed to collect the monies have not collected them.

“When we discovered that, we put a sanction that a bank is to pay N1 million per box in a day. So it is in the number of days they refused to collect it. We have also mandated all the banks to put new naira notes in their ATMs all over Nigeria so that people will have access to these new naira notes,” he added.