Some Kogi residents have complained about the lack of new Naira notes in the state.
This is because some residents complained that some of the state’s banks were still dispensing old notes through their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and counters.
Some residents in Lokoja who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) expressed concern about the scarcity, with only two weeks until the CBN deadline of Jan. 31 to phase out the old notes.
Hajia Lami Audu, a Kogi-based businesswoman, warned that the way the CBN and commercial banks handled the release of the New Naira notes of 1000, 500, and 200 could spark a crisis unless the deadline was extended.
“If you go to withdraw money from a bank, whether at the counter or through an ATM, you will be given old notes rather than new notes as directed by the CBN,” she explained.
“I get more of the old notes from customers who pay me,” Mrs Jumai Agada, a fish seller at Natako’s New Market, said.
“Again, I have my fear and dislike for the new Naira notes because each time we go to buy fish by the river bank with the new notes, they wash or fade as soon as water touches them.
“The new notes aren’t as good as the old ones, which are water resistant. “I’m sure if you get soaked by rain during the rainy season, the notes will stain your clothes if you keep them in your pocket,” she explained.
Mr Abdullazeez Musa, a meat seller at Adankolo Market, said that most of his customers bought meat with old notes rather than new notes.
Musa wondered why the new notes were not widely circulated, given the Apex Bank’s directive to banks to ensure a reasonable flow and circulation in society.
A walk around some of the banks’ ATMs revealed that only a few of them were dispensing old notes.
Some of the defaulting banks’ operations managers, who spoke to NAN on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the fault was not theirs because their branches were not receiving enough mints.
“As you can see, our two ATM machines outside aren’t even dispensing money because we don’t have enough new naira notes to stock the machines.
“The CBN has warned us not to stock the machines with old notes, and we don’t want to disobey, so we’ve left them empty until we get supplies,” an Operations Manager explained.
On January 9, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through its Director of Currency Operations, Mr Ahmed-Umar, directed commercial banks to stop accepting old Naira notes in their ATMs.
Ahmed-Umar claimed that the apex bank had enough new notes to meet public demand, and that it would monitor commercial banks to ensure compliance with the directive.
He stated that the directive was issued to implement the January 31 deadline for withdrawing old notes from circulation.
“We, CBN management, have mandated banks to stop putting old notes in their ATMs. Only new notes should be placed.
“There is a serialisation of the policy in that they can put either N500, N1000, or N200 notes, or a combination of the notes,” he explained.
“However, as good as the Apex bank’s intention is, the situation here in Kogi deserves more pragmatic action to ensure that people, especially the villagers, do not lose their hard-earned monies,” said Adeiza Mathias, a medical doctor.
