As demand for new naira notes surged over the weekend, commercial banks in most parts of the country have taken to rationing the available quantum to customers.
This was just as the automated teller machines in most of the banks failed to dispense the new notes to frustrated Nigerians who thronged the machines very early on Saturday to withdraw money.
Similarly, Nigerians took advantage of the weekend window of commercial banks to return the old naira notes, 72 hours to the expiry of the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
They, however, expressed anguish at the non-availability of the new notes, appealing to the CBN to give enough of the new notes to bank for onward release to them.
The scarcity, Sunday Tribune investigation revealed, inhibited free flow business transaction, even as many petty traders and commercial drivers refused to accept the old notes on Saturday.
A branch manager of one of the commercial banks in Lagos State told Sunday Tribune that the situation will get worse tomorrow as there appears to be no end in sight to the acute shortage of the new currency.
In apparent understanding of the anger and frustration being experienced by Nigerians over the scarcity of the new naira notes, President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday asserted that the on- going currency changes are targeted at people hoarding illicit funds and not the com- mon man, noting that it has become necessary to pre- vent counterfeits, corruption, and terrorist funding.
According to a statement issued yesterday by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), the president assured that his government will ensure that citizens are unharmed in their businesses and no disruption is caused to the entire supply chain arising from the currency swap due to end shortly.
But Nigerians across major cities in the country lamented the scarcity of the new naira notes in separate inter- views with Sunday Tribune, just as traders, commercial bus drivers, churches, malls and other shopping outlets reject the old notes.
Our correspondents in Lagos reported that some banks still issue the old naira notes across the counters, while ATMs only disburse the combination of both old and new notes.
Many POS operators around Egbeda, while speaking with Sunday Tribune lamented their inability to access the new naira notes as the banks refused to disburse the new notes.
They claimed that they did not have a single note to pay customers trooping to their shops to receive the new naira notes.
Also, in a bid to avoid losing money as the deadline draws closer, many worship centers in the state have reportedly informed the worshippers not to come with old naira notes today on the fear that such old notes may not be accepted in the various banks tomorrow (Monday).
A visit to the abattoir in Bammeke area of the state for example, showed that the new naira policy has drastically affected the hitherto booming business.
Investigation revealed that prior to the announcement of the new financial policy, the abattoir which used to sell at least six cows now struggle to sell one as their source of supplying from the Northern part of the country have suddenly suspended the business due to the non- availability of new notes to transact the business.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune, a civil servant in Lagos, Mr Wole Egbewola, said bus conductors in the state have started rejecting the old notes.
He said the conductor of the bus he boarded from Ibafo to Ikeja asked passengers with old notes to come down from his bus, saying he preferred to go back home to pack the bus than working to collect ‘expired’ naira notes.
In the same vein, there were also prolonged queues at major petrol stations in the state owing to the rejection of old naira notes by petrol attendants at the stations.
In Abeokuta, it was the same scenarios as traders were seen rejecting the old notes.
A pepper seller at Oníkolobo area of the Ogun State capital, who identified her- self, simply as Iya Sikemi, said: “People are suffering with the old naira notes been phased out. The people be- hind these new notes are not being fair to us. It is war to deposit the small notes with us. Thank God that I have a son working with a commer- cial bank. He has been assist- ing me with depositing.”
PCC faults CBN over circulation of new notes
For Ado-Ekiti, there were also long queues around major banks and ATMs in the Ekiti State capital due to the rising rejection of the old notes by traders, motorists and service providers in the state.
Checks revealed that the new notes were not available in most of the banks in the state capital, just as the ATMs were dispensing old notes in some cases, while few ones dispensing new notes of N200, N500, and N1,000 had huge number of bank cus- tomers.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune, a resident in the state, Kolade Ogundipe said, “I have been going to ATMs since Thursday, I have not be able to withdraw new notes and the old notes are being rejected by people around here. I went to a shop on Fri- day, after consuming what I bought, to my surprise, the old notes were rejected and I had to sign a form that it will be paid on Monday before they could release me to go and it is because I am a well known person in that area.”
The Public Complaints Commission (PCC) expressed displeasure over the lopsided distribution of the new notes in Ekiti State.
The PCC Federal Commis- sioner representing Ekiti State, Kayode Bamisile, told Sunday Tribune that the distribution was lopsided and not fully implemented in Ekiti going by the barrage of complaints that had been received and verified by the commission.
Bamisile said: “Our team led by the Director of inves- tigation, went to all banks in Ado Ekiti and other local government areas, where we have our offices, to ensure that bank customers have ac- cess to the new naira notes and the CBN’s directive ad- hered to. We also met with the state CBN branch manager.
“Actually, there were challenges, most of the banks visited were giving out both new and old naira notes to their customers, but the complaints is that, Auto- mated Teller Machines (ATM) mostly dispense old notes, even same is the situation in the banking hall,” he claimed.
But the CBN Director of Fi- nance, Benjamin Fakunle, in the state insisted that banks have been instructed not to dispense old notes in their ATMs and that officials of the apex bank were monitoring to punish defaulting banks.
Fakunle, who spoke at the weekend during a sensitisa- tion drive and swapping of old notes with new currency to people in Ilawe-Ekiti, Ekiti South West Local Govern- ment Area, said, “There is no bank as at today in the whole of Ekiti State that is dispens- ing old currency notes. I have been monitoring, I have gone round most of the banks and there is no bank that is dis- pensing old notes.”
Families on hunger strike as traders reject old naira notes in Ondo
It was the same tale of lamentation in Ondo State as residents besieged vari- ous banks in Akure, the state capital on Saturday to lodge the old Naira notes.
Some of the residents, who spoke to Sunday Tribune at the various banks visited, complained over the slow process in the depositing the old naira notes while there was shortage of cash at the ATM points.
At Zenith Bank, Alagbaka, a customer explained that most of the ATM machines were filled with new notes of N500, while customers have access to withdraw only N30,000 at N10,000 per withdrawal.
It was also the same situa- tion at Access Bank and UBA, as customers had to wait for a longer period at the ATM galleries before withdrawing from the ATM.
Speaking on the situation, one of the customers, Yinka Ogunleye, said the intro- duction of new notes was wrongly timed and affected so many things.
She said: “The new notes are made available by the banks and I want to tell you that I am just setting my eyes on it this morning. The banks are also complaining about the shortage of the new notes.
But some residents in Ok- itipupa Local Government Area of the state told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that their families have embarked on hunger strike due to the rejection of old naira notes by traders and POS operators in their areas.
A POS operator in the LG, Mr Matthew Aworinde, told NAN that he was out of business as he was yet to get the new Naira notes for transaction.
“The CBN has to act fast on this issue because we do not understand what is hap- pening, I have stopped busi- ness now, because I cannot get the new notes from the banks,” he said.
Calabar residents keep vigil at ATMs for new naira notes
Meanwhile, due to the frustration occasioned by the scarcity of new naira notes, residents of Calabar, the Cross River State capital have reportedly resorted to keeping vigil at ATM centers in search of the notes.
The News Agency of Ni- geria (NAN) who monitored the situation around the metropolis, reports that the ATM points across the city have been taken over by long queues of people scrambling to get the new notes.
NAN reports that the long queues at the ATM points in Calabar started on Wednes- day and have been like that as at the time of filing this report.
The residents, however, blamed the long queues on deliberate acts by the banks not to load all their machines with the new notes.
POS operators charge extra money for new notes
In Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, POS operators are reportedly charging extra money to dispense new naira notes to customers.
Investigations by Sunday Tribune showed that some of the POS operators charge extra N100 against normal N200 on N10,000 withdrawal to get new notes of N1,000.
Some of them said they are not yet dispensing new notes for now as they could not get the new notes from banks to give customers.
It was observed yesterday that few oil marketers in the state did not collect old naira notes, while many traders in such markets as Oja Tuntun, Yoruba Road market, Zango market, among others still collected the old naira notes for business transaction as of press time.
Residents stranded in Bauchi
For Nigerians in Bauchi, Sunday Tribune gathered that scarcity of the new naira note grounded commercial activities in the state capital as many shops were locked, while the state residents were seen at various banks queuing to beat the dead- line for depositing of the old notes.
A resident in the state, Mrs Christiana Michael, in an interview with Sunday Tri- bune, said she was stranded on Saturday as the few shops that opened in the state re- fused to collect the old notes from her, while commercial motorcyclists and tricyclists also rejected the old notes, which she said forced her and several other residents to trek long distances within the metropolis.
It was also discovered that Pastors have told their mem- bers not to bring old notes to Church on Sunday (today) because it would be rejected.
The church members were advised to bring new notes for tithe and offering and make transfer to the church account.
Banks comply with CBN directive, as customers flood premises with old naira notes in Delta
Meanwhile, in compliance with the directive of the CBN, commercial banks, on Satur- day, in Delta State, witnessed the influx of customers who were eager to deposit their old naira notes ahead of the January 31st deadline.
Checks by our correspon- dent on Saturday revealed that banks along Warri-Sapele road such as Heritage Bank, Fidelity Bank, UBA, Sterling Bank, Wema Bank, Eco Bank and First Bank were all receiv- ing old notes, but not paying out new notes through their ATMs or across the counters.
