Traders and transporters in Lagos were still accepting the old naira notes on Monday despite the expiration of the February 10 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Many Nigerians have expressed concerns over the confusion surrounding the deadline for the old notes following the order of the Supreme Court that restrained the federal government from banning the old naira notes.
The Supreme Court had last Wednesday suspended the February 10, 2023 deadline for the use of the old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes.
Nigerian banks are sticking to the February 10, 2023 deadline for the phasing out of high-value naira notes. They issued notices on Friday to their customers regarding the expiration of the deadline.
“The old designs of N200, N500, and N1,000 will no longer be accepted as legal tender after today 10 February 2023. Deposit your old notes now at any of our branches,” one of the lenders, Stanbic IBTC, said in a note to its customers.
At Agboju market at the weekend, a Point of Sale (PoS) operator was going round helping those who needed cash to buy food items but at a cost. It cost N700 to withdraw N5,000 (old notes).
Mohammed Hassan, a yam seller in Mile 12 Market, said he was still collecting the old notes because the deadline is February 17 and not February 10 as many people thought.
CBN added an extra one week to the deadline after announcing February 10 but many people are still not aware and that is why they were thinking the old notes are no longer legal tender,” Hassan said.
Many Automated Teller Machines were not dispensing money on Monday, making more people patronise PoS agents.
The Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN) has empathised with members of the public over the discomfort and hardship associated with the current currency reform, which introduced the newly designed naira notes and reduction in withdrawal limit.
“We are in constant communication with all the Banks and are assured that they are all doing whatever is within their control to normalise this difficult situation. We enjoin the banking public to maintain peace, rest assured that BDAN is taking all reasonable steps to influence the structure and mechanisms that should free up bottlenecks and open channels that will speed up the resolution of the crisis,” said Mustafa Chike-Obi, chairman, board of directors of BDAN.
