Residents of some communities and markets in the Illela Local Government Area of Sokoto State have begun to abandon the Nigerian currency for CFA franc because of the shortage of New Naira Notes, SaharaReporters has gathered, SaharaReporters reports.
Illela is a border town with the Niger Republic and about 105 kilometres from Sokoto, the capital city of Sokoto State.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had earlier set the deadline for the old N200, N500, and N1000 for January 31, 2023, but due to the scarcity of the new naira notes and its attendant effects on the economy, the apex bank extended the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes for newly designed ones till February 10.
A resident of Sabon-Gari, a town in Illela of the Local Government Area, identified as Yusuf Sani revealed to SaharaReporters that he had changed all his Naira notes to CFA because of the difficulty in getting New Naira Notes in the region.
“I decided to have only CFA because people are not collecting Old Naira Notes again. The ATM does not even dispense. You can only get New Naira Note from POS, which is around N200 to N300 per N1,000.
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“This is why it is safe to have CFA,” he explained.
According to Sani, it will be easier for him to spend the foreign currency because his town is close to some communities in the Niger Republic.
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Abu, a trader at the ILLELA International Cattle Market, added that while it is not unusual to see some traders using CFA in the markets, most traders now exclusively use CFA due to the non-circulation of the New Naira Notes.
He said, “In this market, we have many people from neighbouring countries that come here to do business, particularly in cattle. So they bring foreign currency like CFA. But for the past few weeks, spending Naira is now becoming difficult because no one is ready to collect the old Naira notes.”
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