THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is yet to issue an official confirmation that Nigerians can spend both the old and new N500 and N1,000 notes, as stated by the Anambra State governor, Chukwuma Soludo.
Soludo, a former CBN governor, had stated in his official Facebook account that the incumbent CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, told him in a telephone chat that he had directed commercial banks to dispense the old currency notes and also receive same as deposits from customers following the outcome of a Bankers Committee meeting on March 12, 2023.
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There, however, has been no indication that Emefiele had, indeed, issued any directive to that effect as commercial banks were today still rejecting the old N500 and N1000 notes, neither had they resumed loading their automated teller machines (ATMs) with them.
Emefiele’s refusal to issue an official instruction to banks and the general public to transact in the old notes is a brazen shun of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which ruled on March 23 that the old N500 and N1,000 notes shall remain legal tender till December 31, 2023.
Checks by The ICIR showed that where commercial banks were even ready to issue the old notes, they would not accept them from any customer.
With the new notes very scarce to effect daily transactions, Nigerians have been finding survival difficult. Sourcing few naira notes to live on has been further impoverishing the poor, as point-of-sale operators have been compelling them to pay, for example, as high as N300 to get a sum of N1,000.
Some banks were, however, seen paying out the new notes, though sparingly. An Access Bank branch in Kubwa, the Federal Capital Territory, was seen today paying customers N2,000 each.
In major markets across the country, traders were rejecting the old notes.
At the busy Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos, a mobile phone accessories dealer, Kenneth Udeh, said, “Nobody is accepting the old notes.”
The ICIR had reported the difficulties businesses had been going through to sustain their businesses amid the cash crunch occasioned by the currency redesign policy.
Some state governors that included Nasr el-Rufai of Kaduna State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and Soludo himself had issued statements directing their people to transact in the old notes, and even threatening to punish anybody who rejected them.
The Anambra State governor called on residents to report any bank that refused to accept deposits of the old notes.
“Anambra State Government will not only report such a bank to the CBN, but will also immediately shut down the defaulting branch,” Soludo added.
But the people, especially traders, would rather wait for Emefiele’s statement to give the all clear rather than obey the governors as they fear being stuck with the old notes if they collected them.
In Lagos State, where Sanwo-Olu issued a statement today that residents can spend and trade in the old notes, caution is still the word.
“I can’t accept the old notes because nobody will accept them from me. Even banks won’t accept them from me,” a foodstuffs dealer at the Ojuwoye market, Mushin, Adewole Badru, told our correspondent.
Badru added, “Sanwo-Olu’s statement to Lagosians to accept the old notes cannot work because he is not the CBN governor.”
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.