Nigerians are expressing frustration and confusion following the release and recirculation of old N500 and N1000 notes by banks amidst scarcity of new Naira notes.
With many bank customers who are on a daily basis besieging banks in search of new Naira notes, many customers are now being forced by the scarcity to collect the old notes from commercial banks and PoS operators.
Expressing her displeasure, one eatery operator within Prayer City who has two POS machines by her shop said, “I have been selling food and drinks by transfers and by POS. But now, I am in need of cooking materials but without money since about 95 per cent of customers are using POS or transfers but I cannot withdraw the money. Many farmers bringing palm oil, etc want to collect cash to enable them to buy new products. I think I will have to stop selling to people with transfers or POS.”
A man who simply identified himself as Mr Ajisola expressed disappointment over the naira policy saying he joined others to collect old N1000 notes from the bank.
As most traders and transporters are not accepting the old notes, he had stayed at the bus stop for over one hour without any bus conductor accepting to collect the old notes.
“I was lucky to have seen a korope bus driver who accepted to collect N1000 with the condition that I pay N500 for a journey of N300. I quickly jumped at the offer. When I got to Ketu Market, I heard a trader shouting ‘I am collecting old money.’ I quickly spent N600 out of the remaining N1,000 note by buying what I did not actually need.”
An interstate trader who shuttles between Lagos and Ore in Ondo State to buy palm oil said, “I was in dire need of cash, though I had few new notes, I needed extra for my market. I went and collected some old notes from bank. But from Lagos to Ondo State, I came back with the same old notes.
“Those sellers in Ondo State said they will not collect until either President Buhari or the CBN governor speaks on it. Those sellers sold jerrycans of oil for me on credit with the promise that I should bring the money next week when I will go back to buy another set.”
It would be recalled that amidst the confusion created by rejection of old N500 and N1000 notes that are currently being reissued by banks, based on scarcity of new Naira notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it did not approve the recirculation of the old notes.
Several reports had on Wednesday suggested that the apex bank, in line with the Supreme Court judgement of March 3, 2023, approved the recirculation of old naira notes till December 31, 2023.
However, CBN acting director of Corporate Communications, Isa Abdulmumim, declared the report as ‘fake news’ urging Nigerians to disregard it and avoid purveyors of such reports.