Despite deadline extension, crowds besiege banks amid scarcity of new notes
While POS operators in major cities have no cash, crowds remain in banks as Nigerians lament scarcity of the new naira notes.
There were large crowds and long queues at cash points and banking halls in major cities across Nigeria earlier in the week despite the extension of the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes for the new designs of the Nigerian currency.
Bamitolamedia reporters who visited banks and ATM points on Monday and Tuesday observed that Nigerians continue to lament the scarcity of the new notes amid poor banking operations.
While the scarcity of the new notes worsened cash transactions for many traders in local markets, poor network and other technical issues stifled online transactions in stores, restaurants, and shopping malls in major cities.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, had on Sunday announced a 10-day extension of the deadline for the acceptance of old naira notes as legal tender after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State.
The announcement came two days before the expiration of the deadline the bank issued for the phasing out of the old N200, N500, and N1, 000 denominations of the naira notes.
Last October, the CBN had announced the bank’s resolve to redesign, produce, and circulate the new notes. Mr Emefiele said the redesign of the currency was to help manage the money supply and tackle currency counterfeiting and terrorism, among other concerns, in the country.
The circulation of the new banknotes started on 15 December with the old notes scheduled to cease to be a legal tender after 31 January.
But the development has generated heated debates among the general public, as Nigerians lamented the scarcity of the new notes.
With the extension of the deadline on Sunday, many Nigerians expected that the chaos generated by the policy would be resolved and normalcy would return to the banks.
However, a survey by In4mationplug’ correspondents across Nigeria revealed that the chaos persists despite the CBN’s extension of the deadline.
ABEOKUTA
On Monday and Tuesday, In4mationplug observed long queues at branches of Stanbic IBTC Bank, First City Monument Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), and Access Bank in Oke-Ilewo, a commercial area in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
A security man in one of the banks said majority of the customers were there to deposit old notes and get the new notes. He added that the other customers who were at the bank for regular transactions did not join the queues for new notes.
