Commercial banks in Nigeria seem to have begun full compliance with the switch to the new naira notes which the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN released on November 23, 2023, as the new deadline approaches.
The new notes ‐- N200, N500, and N1000 have been reportedly scarce and as of Friday, findings revealed that banks were still issuing old notes over the counter.
However, on Monday, there seems to be a new trajectory in the narrative as banks were said to have begun full compliance with the directive of the apex bank in issuing new notes.
Our correspondent observed that Lagosians in various parts of Lagos queued, sat on floors banks, languishing a d queuing for the new notes.
Mr. Emeka Ndubuisi, one of the customers in the queue in the Ikeja area of Lagos said that “the ATM is dispensing new notes.
“As of Friday,” continued Emeka, “I went to withdraw ₦80,000 inside the bank and it was all old notes.
“On this queue today are new notes, even inside the bank. So we are moving at least. I’ve been in the queue for two hours and it’s not yet my turn.
Another customer, Mrs. Oluchi Anyalwbechi told our correspondent that she “is in the queue to withdraw only ₦2,000”. She alleged that mobile bank operators popularly called POS were charging ten percent of any withdrawal.
“POS people are changing percentages on the money you collect. For ₦2,000 they said it’s ₦200 and ₦5000 is ₦500. So I have to remain in the queue.
It was also gathered that on about ten banks on the popular Allen Road in Ikeja with densely populated workstations and businesses, only two banks were paying.
Another customer, Audu Gawska said the machine was not paying earlier as it was out of service, but he preferred to wait because he had been informed by a bank official that the ATM was being loaded.
Meanwhile, the CBN governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele on Sunday assured that the currency has yielded significant results.
“Available data at the bank showed that in 2015, currency-in-circulation was only N1.4 trillion. As of October 2022, currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion; out of which only N500 billion was within the banking Industry and N2.7 trillion held permanently in people’s homes,” he said.
He said since the commencement of the programme, the CBN has collected about N1.9 trillion, “leaving us with about N900 billion (N500b + N1.9trillion).
“We are happy that so far, the exercise has achieved a success rate of over 75 percent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system.
According to him, Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged, and the vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes, leveraging the Agent Naira Swap initiative as well as the CBN Senior staff nationwide sensitisation team exercise.
“Aside from those holding illicit, stolen Naira in their homes for speculative purposes, we do aim to give all Nigerians that have Naira legitimately earned and trapped the opportunity to deposit their legitimately trapped monies at the CBN for exchange.”
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