Some commercial banks and filling stations have stopped collecting the old naira notes from customers, contrary to the ruling of the Supreme Court restraining the Federal Government from enforcing the February 10 time limit earlier fixed by the apex bank for the currency swap.
Observationon Monday indicated that the banks refused to accept the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes from depositors and point-of-service agents who flooded the bank to lodge their cash.
Point of service operators and other bank customers whose old naira notes were rejected, panicked as bank officials, who said they were acting on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive, remained adamant.
Also, lawyers and litigants at high courts in Lagos State were unable to file their court processes using the old naira notes for payment.
As the naira crisis worsened, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, again met with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
Emefiele, who had met with the President about six times since the naira crisis started, failed to address correspondents as he reportedly left the villa through a side entrance.
The governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states on February 8 secured the order of the apex court extending the deadline beyond last Friday stipulated by the CBN for the use of the old notes.
A seven-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro directed that the deadline be suspended till Wednesday when the proceedings would continue even as other states had applied to join the suit.
visit to some of the Mobil filling station along Lagos-Badagry Expressway shows that the attendants refused to accept the old naira notes on Monday.
It was also observe that most banks in Lagos State refused to collect the old notes from customers.
Some frustrated and desperate customers were seen making frantic calls to their friends and loved ones intimating them of the development.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the latest development, a staff member of First Bank Plc said that they were instructed not to collect the old naira notes.
Findings also indicate that some banks in Abuja, the capital city, have stopped accepting the old notes.
At a Zenith bank branch located in the Central Business District, customers who had the old notes could not deposit them as officials blatantly refused to accept them.
A bank official stated, “We are not collecting old notes again, the deadline was on Friday. The memo I saw yesterday (Sunday) directed that we should not collect N1,000 and N500 old notes anymore.
“We even had to dispatch all our old currency on Friday to the Central Bank. We obey our regulators, not the Supreme Court.
“We are no longer receiving the old notes, we are working with the CBN and anything they say is what we do,’’ a female cashier declared.
But the GTB and First Bank branches in the Jabi district flatly refused to accept the old notes.
Customers lament
Some people said that the bank and some others in the state capital rejected their old notes. So, I can tell you the banks are not accepting the old notes. The Federal Government needs to speak to Nigerians on this issue. This suffering is unbearable,” she said.
Extend old Naira notes deadline, govs beg Buhari
It was also observed that traders, petrol stations and supermarkets were also rejecting the old notes on the grounds that the banks were no longer collecting them.
But some filling stations and supermarkets accepted PoS and electronic cash transfers during transactions.
A businessman, Mr. Sunday, noted, “I went to my bank this (Monday) morning to deposit N55,000 old notes but it was rejected as the cashier told me that they didn’t collect old notes for now. I felt bad because there is nowhere I can take the money.The government should do something about this problem.
The CBN branch controller, Sanusi Sah, dismissed allegations that the issuance of the old notes by the banks in the state was meant to perpetrate fraud.
He also indicated the readiness of the bank to commence the naira swap based on official mail received from its head office.
Explaining why the filling stations were rejecting the old naira notes, the Secretary, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja branch, Mohammed Shuaibu, said the banks were to blame for the development.
He stated that the banks had remained adamant, attributing this to the confusion caused by the CBN.
“The banks are still adamant. They said the CBN has not given them a directive on what to do. Before now, they said the CBN gave them a circular asking them not to collect the old notes from February 10, 2023,” he stated.
“So this is creating confusion and people are afraid, because if you go to the banks, they won’t collect it from you, and if you collect the notes from the public, the banks will be adamant.”
It was, however, observed that most filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory had started using the Point of Sale machines, in accordance with the directive of the Federal Government.
Last week, the Federal Government through its Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, ordered filling stations to accept PoS transactions as well as bank transfers from customers in order to ameliorate the effect of the cash crunch in Nigeria.
Reacting to the situation, the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria insisted that the banks must accept the old notes.
The National President, of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Victor Olojo, who was indignant over the banks’ action asked the CBN to compel them to receive the old notes.
He said, “We are calling on the CBN to be more circumspect and they should also observe. They are dealing with Nigerians, we are in our country; we are not third-class citizens. The reality of the matter is that the currency swap has not been effective, it has not yielded any result. So if banks decide to say they are not collecting, it further affects the citizens.’’
Olojo cited the directive of the Kano State Government compelling banks in the state to continue to accept the old currencies.
He added, “The CBN should intervene and call on the bank to do the needful. You are aware that in Kano state and other places, commercial banks are compelled by the state government to work.
“In fact, small businesses that don’t collect old notes are being sanctioned by the state government. So the reality is that the cash swap is not effective, any further action by the CBN will affect the citizens. We are calling on the CBN to compel the banks to do the needful until we see meaningful results except we want are deceiving ourselves.
“We are not anywhere close to a successful cash swap programme in this country. Go to the market today, a lot of the old notes are still in circulation because there are no new notes to exchange for them.
Meanwhile, the CBN has said that over N2tn old notes had been deposited by bank customers since it began the cash swap programme.
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