Nigeria Stopping the Rejection of Old or Torn USD Notes Underlines Why Crypto Is a Better Reserve Currency

In the circular issued by Ahmed Umar, a director in the CBN’s Currency Operations Department, the central bank says it will sanction institutions that “refuse to accept old series/lower denominations U.S. dollar bills from their customers.”

Furthermore, the CBN warned against the same institutions to cease the practice of defacing/stamping USD notes as these “always fail authentication tests during processing or sorting.”

In the meantime, Nigeria is not the only inflation hit African country to face this predicament. In Zimbabwe, which has similarly seen the value of its currency plunge in the past few years, rejection of old or torn U.S. dollars continues to be a problem. At one point, the U.S. Embassy in Harare was forced to issue a statement reassuring Zimbabweans that all U.S. notes remain legal tender regardless of when they were issued.