Despite the reprieve granted to Nigerians via the Supreme Court order restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria and the federal government from implementing the 10 February 2023 deadline for old naira notes, many institutions in the country, particularly commercial banks, downstream sector players, and notable supermarkets, have stopped collecting the old N200, N500 and N1000 in transactions.
This is as many Nigerians find it hard collecting their monies from commercial banks in the country with many ATMs not dispensing the new notes just as people are unable to make withdrawals over the counter in disregard to the CBN instruction.
The scarcity of the new naira notes has created a largesse for POS operators who charge as much as N2000 on N10,000.
Recall that before the 10 February deadline, Zamfara, Kaduna and Kogi states approached the Supreme Court of Nigeria seeking to restrain the implementation of the policy. The highest court in Nigeria subsequently restrained the CBN and FG, as it fixed Wednesday 15 February 2023 for the hearing of the case. Ondo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Rivers and Sokoto states have since joined their counterparts at the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, while Nigerians anxiously await the direction of the judgement tomorrow, reports from different media outlets, especially the Punch and Daily Trust, as well as the field work conducted by the Nigerian Observer within Benin City, indicated that some institutions have started rejecting the old notes.
Upon enquiry, most of the institutions concerned attributed their actions to the body language of the authorities at the CBN.
A canteen operator within Benin City, who did not want her name to be mentioned, rejected the old notes outright from all her customers, saying that commercial banks would not collect the old notes from her anymore.
“We have stopped collecting the old notes from customers. All the cash collected is deposited on a daily basis and my banker has told me to stop collecting the old notes. We are sorry for the inconveniences this may cause you,” she told a customer.
Quoting Haladu Idris Andaza, CBN Branch Controller in Bauchi, Daily Trust reported that the N200, N500 and N100 old notes are no longer legal tender in Nigeria from the viewpoint of CBN.
“So, for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is opened to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria. Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has seized to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month.
“Consequently, the management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money.
“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange. After filling the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it in your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein. In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit,” Daily Trust quoted Andaza to have said.
As the scarcity of the new naira notes persists, Bismarck Rewane, one of Nigeria’s foremost economists and the chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, has sounded a note of warning while speaking on Channels TV that the cash swap policy of the CBN could cause a 3 to 5 percent decline in Nigeria’s GDP in the first quarter of 2023, implying Nigeria could lose as much as $18 million monthly due to the sharp reduction in velocity of money in circulation and man-hour loss.
According to him, the number of ATMs in low, middle and high income areas of the commercial centres in Nigeria including Lagos and Kano states has reduced, causing many Nigerians to spend more hours on the queue with the attendant effect on the loss of man hours.
