New Naira Notes: Anxiety as CBN insist on deadline

Banked or unbanked Nigeria are anxious following the insistence by the Central Bank of Nigeria on January 31, deadline.Information Guide Nigeria

Many Nigerians are currently racing against time to rid their purses and wallets of N200, N500 and N1, 000 notes.

Recall that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on October 26, 2022 announced Tuesday January 31, 2023 as deadline for phasing out the old versions of the affected naira notes.

“The old series of N200, N500 and N1, 000 notes will cease to be legal tender by January 31, 2023. This is a reminder to the general public. You are advised to return them to your banks before the deadline.”

According to THE GUARDIAN, the CBN launched Cash Swap platform, a programme intended to increase the speed of circulation of the new banknotes and increase awareness ahead of the deadline for demonetisation of the old notes.JAMB Result

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However, the desired outcome is yet to be achieved as there are still allegations of sabotage levelled against commercial banks recently.

This has prompted the Senate to call for an extension of the deadline by the Apex bank.

A businessman, who has collected over N5 million of the redesigned naira notes from one of the new generation banks in Lagos, said that the new notes are in the commercial banks but the banks use them to favour their VIP customers, as alleged by the CBN.

Speaking to THE GUARDIAN, a woman, identified as Juliana Ogundipe, who withdrew N5, 000 said she got N2, 000 of the new notes and N3, 000 old notes.

Juliana Ogundipe was also angry that she wanted to withdraw N50, 000 but was only paid N20, 000 while the message that popped up read, “You have reached your maximum daily withdrawal limit.”

A civil servant, Ibrahim Abbas said, “They said they are redesigning some denominations of the Naira, and that Nigerians should take their old notes to the banks and start getting the redesigned ones. But what we still get from the ATMs, and even from the bank counters are the old notes. This is not right.”

A Point of Sale (PoS) operator, identified as Gabriel Asika said, “CBN is telling us that there are enough redesigned notes in vaults of the DMBs, but the banks are saying that they do not have enough supply of the notes. Something is not adding up.”

The Head, Inclusion for all Initiative, Chinasa Collins-Ogbuo, noted that: “ About 54.2 per cent of Nigeria’s unbanked poor indicated their preference for saving their money in a safe place at home or carrying it around, indicating that more than 50 per cent of this segment of the population could lose their savings if they are unable to exchange old notes for new notes.”NYSC portal

THE GUARDIAN reports that a former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) said that serving members of the upper legislative chamber, he had not seen the new notes.

“I, as a senator, have not seen the new notes. I only saw the new note once in December when I moved the motion and I said I have not seen the money. That was when one of my colleagues showed me the N1, 000 note. I have been withdrawing money from the bank since then, and have never got new notes from the bank.

“Even last Friday, I made withdrawal from the bank, and they gave me old notes. And then surprisingly, now I heard that in some places, they are rejecting old notes. In other words, the CBN’s deadline has actually been implemented in remote places over fear of people losing their money. This panic is going to cause economic chaos.”JAMB portal

THE GUARDIAN reports that the Senate also called for extension of the deadline following the adoption of a motion moved by Sodiq Umar (APC, Kwara), who argued that the policy was affecting the people negatively.

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