By: Salako Tijani
Central bank of Nigeria on Monday still insisted that Nigerians should return their old Naira notes to their various banks before the money fade out to be a legal tender in the transactional market.
The apex bank in a message which was sent as bulk SMS to Nigerians over the return of their old Naira notes of N1000, N500 and N200 still maintain the deadline date of 31st of January, 2023.
The apex bank notification reads “Don’t wait till January 31, 2023 to deposit your old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes with your bank or agent,” the bank urged.
Prior to this, the apex bank has given a directive to all the commercial banks to load their ATM machines with the new naira notes for the Nigerians usage.
The Director of currency operation, Mr Ahmed Umar in his statement said ” We, CBN management have ordered banks to load their ATMs with the new naira currency and they should not put the old note.”
Meanwhile, some banks around Lagos and Ogun are yet to strictly comply with this order as some banks are still dispensing the old naira notes to customers.
Standard Time correspondents checked banks like GTCO, Access, Zenith and others along Lagos/Abeokuta express road are still dispensing the old notes heavily.
While engaging a point of sales operator (POS) about the new naira, he said “it was yesterday morning that he first touched N200 new note, he expressed a mixed reaction that the circulation of the money is very weak.
Another acquaintance said “one will definitely give wrong change to customers when buying goods especially at night when transacting with new N200 and old N500 notes because of its likened colour.”
Furthermore, another bank customer, Mr. Wasiu, said when he used the ATM in island, it dispensed both new and old Naira notes but urged the apex bank to extend the date as the circulation of the new naira is not encouraging.
