The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied reports making the rounds that it has authorized deposit money banks to collect the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes.

In a statement by Osita Nwanisobi, CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications on Friday said the report was fake and not unauthorized.

It said the apex bank strictly stands by the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that only allows the old N200 note to circulate with the new one for a period of 60 days.

Media houses including Diamond FM had earlier reported that the CBN had directed commercial banks to accept the old N500 and N1,000 notes.

We hereby confirm it was unverified and regret the shortcoming.