By Adedapo Adesanya
Business Post has gathered that although some Nigerian banks have started disbursing the old higher denominations of Naira notes, traders, artisans, and retailers, among others, have continued to reject them.
Last Friday, the supreme court extended the validity of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes till December 31, 2023, upturning the February 10, 2023, deadline of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
But investigation showed that some Nigerians are rejecting the old Naira notes, saying they will only collect the redesigned currency notes.
A PoS attendant in the Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos identified simply as Ruth told our correspondent that, “Banks have started giving us old notes, they have started giving us N10,000 of it.”
Despite this, customers remain wary of spending the old notes as bus drivers, traders, and artisans reject the notes despite the judgement of the apex court.
In the ruling last week, the CBN was directed to continue to receive notes from Nigerians. It also nullified the federal government’s Naira redesign policy, declaring it as an affront to the 1999 Constitution.
This reporter gathered from two bus drivers that they were not interested in accepting the currencies since there has been no official correspondence from the federal government about it.
Despite chances by passengers to convince them, both drivers, at separate locations, bluntly refused to accept the banknotes and turned aggressive upon insistence.
The CBN recently claimed that out of the N2.7 trillion cash in the country’s economy, it has been able to retrieve about N2.2 trillion.
Another retailer, whom this reporter spoke to, said that since there had been no official message from President Muhammadu Buhari, she will not accept it.
“We have not heard anything, I won’t accept it,” the woman, identified as Olajumoke Isola, said in Yoruba, and upon inquiry by another customer, who is a micro-retailer, she said, “I can’t collect it from you, I will advise that you don’t collect it as well.”
Outside of Lagos, it is not a different story as Mr Yemi Ajala, an Ogun state resident, told Business Post that, “I’ve not seen banks dispensing it, but the taxi I entered to church on Sunday refused to collect the old N500 note, saying that fuel stations will refuse it.”
He also added that “on Saturday, I heard a trader in my area stringently warning the woman in the next shop not to collect old Naira.”
A Stanbic IBTC bank staff, under the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the bank has not started disbursing the old notes.
However, in some banks, ATMs have been loaded with old N500 and N1,000 notes, but customers refuse to use them and instead opt for crowded banking halls.
