Despite a shortage of new Naira notes, churches in Nigeria have barred offerings with old Naira notes

One of the Central Bank’s more urgent directives following the Naira’s redesign is to completely phase out the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes by the end of January.

This rush to phase out the old notes have begun to ripple through major institutions in Nigeria such as schools and churches.

Numerous churches in Nigeria, ahead of the CBN’s January 31 deadline of phasing out the old notes, have instructed their members to offer only new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes. Schools and retailers have also set time limits for the collection of the old currencies.

This instruction is coming despite the shortage of new Naira notes that have been reported since the currency’s redesign. Even ATM machines at this point still dispense old currencies in large quantities, leaving Nigerians unclear on where to get these new currency notes from.

While each day sees a rise in the number of new Naira notes in circulation, there are still large quantities of old notes still being used for transactions, especially considering that the deadline is in less than a week.

According to a report by the Punch Newspaper, the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, a premier church in Nigeria released a memo directing its church leaders to stop the collection of the old naira notes before the end of the month.

A copy of the memo which was signed by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry Church Secretary, Pastor S.M. Afuwape, was obtained by Punch.

The internal memo, titled, ‘lodgement of old naira notes’ reads, “Calvary’s greetings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to inform you that the Central Bank of Nigeria deadline of 31st January 2023 on the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes in circulation is drawing near. “The church would like to inform you to sensitize your members and the brethren to lodge all Tithes and Offerings collected in the Group on or before 29th January, 2023.

Also, no old notes in the specified denominations above should be paid as offerings as from 29th January 2023. To this end, any old notes (in the prescribed denominations) brought to the headquarters which were not lodged in the bank will be paid for by the Group. Thanks for understanding and cooperation.

This sort of directive has been given across numerous churches in the country.