CBN denies plans to shut down financial transactions for election

The Central Bank of Nigeria has debunked rumours of its plans to halt financial transactions from the 23rd to the 27th of February, 2023, ahead of the upcoming elections.

A WhatsApp message stating that the apex bank will shut down all electronic bank network between Thursday and Monday in order to prevent vote-buying went viral at the beginning of the week.

Titled, “Special report” the message read, “CBN PLANS TO SHUT DOWN FINANCIAL TRANSACTION FROM THURSDAY 23 OF FEBUARY TILL 27TH OF FEBUARY..GO AND STOCK YOUR HOME….

It said, “Anyhow you can get money between today and tomorrow, get and keep it, also whatever transfer you want to do, do it between today and tomorrow. Information I’m hearing is that, as of Thursday, bank networks will go off till Sunday or Monday, so that politicians will not be able to transfer money to anybody for vote. So buy enough food at home, do your transfer now because the next five days will be difficult please.”

Sharing a copy of the said message via its verified Instagram page on Wednesday, CBN  stated that the report was false and advised the public to “beware of fake news.”

The rumours come amid the naira redesign policy and currency swap which had resulted in scarcity of cash across several regions in the country.

The past two weeks have seen queues, riots and burning of banks in several cities due to the biting effect of the policy.