… Commercial Banks Reject Old Naira Notes As Queues Persists
… CBN Insists On February 10 Deadline
As many Nigerians are finding it difficult to obtain the new naira notes, which have resulted in protests across major parts of Nigeria.
Some angry traders under the aegis of Fish sellers Association in Abeokuta today staged a peaceful protest to show their displeasure the untold hardship scarcity of naira notes have brought on the citizens and their businesses.
The traders, comprising aged women, had converged on the premises of Oodua 99.9FM along Abiola Way, Abeokuta in a peaceful demonstration to pass across their grievances to the state government and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The protest which rocked major parts of the state capital saw them demonstrating the failure by most cold rooms for rejecting the old naira notes which have forced many businesses to shutdown.
The market women who carried leaves lamented the inability to buy fish owning to the enforcement of the cashless policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The protesters said some cold rooms at Asero, Obantoko, Aladesanmi and other major parts of Abeokuta have subjected them to another horrendous hardship as they could no longer go about their daily businesses.
Speaking with Tropic Reporters correspondents in Abeokuta, one of the leaders of the protesters, Mrs. Rasheedat Oyebola called on governments at all levels to find lasting solution to the reoccurring challenges to ameliorate the sufferings on the people.
She said, “We are calling on government to help us in this country because the suffering is too much and we can no longer bear it”.
“This scarcity of naira notes have been affecting our business, we no longer have good sales on daily basis because a lot of Nigerians do not have enough money to buy goods from the market”.
“We woke up to seeing another hardship as many cold rooms in Abeokuta failed to sell fish for us because we have old notes with us”.
“Most of all this yesterday night sold fishes to most of our customers and they paid us with the old notes which we can use to buy goods this morning”.
“This is unbearable to us, how are we supposed to go about our daily businesses since we can’t even access the new naira notes”.
“Government should help us bring out the new naira notes so that this present situation will not force many of us out of business”, she lamented.
Commercial Banks Reject Old Naira Notes As Queues Persists
Some commercial banks in Abeokuta metropolis 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.
Recall that the Supreme Court order extending the deadline for the old naira notes till Wednesday this week, meanwhile some banks visited by Tropic Reporters reporters have stopped accepting the notes even as Nigerians continue to spend long hours in queues to access the new N200, N500, N1,000 notes.
A bank official who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity said: “We are not accepting the old notes and I am not sure any commercial banks is accepting it. This is a directive we got from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
A visit to some other commercial banks within the metropolis saw many customers who queued at the entrance lamenting that the banks no longer collect the old naira notes.
CBN Insists On February 10 Deadline
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said that there was no need to shift the February 10, 2023 deadline.
He said this during a visit on Tuesday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the monetary and currency redesign policy of the bank.
He said, “The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents.
“There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10.”
