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Old naira notes deadline: Customers throng banks, beg for extension

By Kayode Olabanji
Adedotun Aderoboye
& Kayode Afolabi

As the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria for Nigerians to deposit their old naira notes inches closer, customers who want to deposit their old naira notes to avoid the late rush have besieged banks.

The customers have also appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to extend the deadline for the old notes because of the stress they are passing through.

The CBN had late last year directed all commercial banks from receiving old notes of the redesigned currency from January 31, 2023.

Those who spoke with The Hope lamented the stressful process they pass through, worsened by the scarcity of new naira notes and called on relevant authorities to help make the process easier.

A customer, Mr. Ayodeji Aduloju described the process of depositing old naira notes as complicated.

His words: “The problem right now is that people are still buying goods from us with the old naira notes and the government is encouraging us to deposit our old notes now. What happens to the old notes that we will still accept tomorrow?

We cannot stop accepting the old notes from our customers because so many of them don’t do online transactions and they don’t have the new notes. The plan now is to keep accepting old notes until may be 29th of this month and deposit them at once. We cannot keep coming to the bank to deposit old notes and we don’t want to lose our money because of CBN’s deadline.”

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Another customer, Mr. Adewale Samuel said “everyday, the bank is filled up with people who want to deposit old notes but the problem is after depositing the old naira notes, we still go out and get more old notes because new notes are scarce. We then come back to the banks and deposit them again. We keep repeating the same process. The last time I deposited money here, I had to visit a POS operator who confirmed he had new notes because I was not sure the ATM will not dispense old notes. That was how I was able to change the old notes.”

Another customer, Miss Alaofin Happiness said “I still have the old naira notes with me and hope to deposit them before the deadline. The government should try to make the whole process easier for the people by making new notes available. There is no reason why we should still be withdrawing old notes from ATM and POS after depositing old notes. We don’t have any choice but to deposit the old notes but the government should make the new notes available.”

A bank personnel who spoke under the condition of anonymity explained that the process of recovering old naira notes and circulating the new notes is ongoing and following due process.

He added that more customers are coming to the banks to deposit their old notes in order to beat the fast approaching deadline set by the CBN and banks transmitting the old notes to the CBN.

His words: “Deposits by customers have increased gradually as we are approaching the deadline. Banks have process in place on how the deposits are evacuated to CBN.”

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A petty trader in Ore, Mrs Yetunde Awoyemi, while narrating her experience since the advent of the new naira note said, it has not be easy to transact with the new naira note to customers

“Most times, we mistake the new N200 note to old N10 due to similarity in colour, and that can result in shortage on our part.

She, however, pleaded with the apex bank to extend the deadline for the phasing out of the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.

“The apex bank decision was a good one, but we plead with them to extend the deadline date

A bank customer in Okitipupa who does not want her name on the print, suggested that CBN should extend the deadline for the new redesigned currencies pending its full circulation.

“By now the new notes should be in circulation more than what we are seeing, and the old notes were not supposed to be given out to customers if the redesigned notes are going to stay,” she said.

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