New Naira Notes
Adebayo Obajemu
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had last week warned that the January 31, 2023 deadline to halt the use of the old 200, 500 and 1000 Naira note remains sacrosanct and would not be extended.
The apex bank implored all Nigerians to make good use of the window allowed for the return of the old notes to commercial banks in order not to suffer financial losses.
The Director, Financial Markets Department of the Bank, Dr. Angela Sere-Ejembi who sounded the warning last Thursday in Makurdi when she led a team to Benue state to sensitize the people and also monitor commercial banks’ compliance to the apex bank’s directive on the issuance of the redesigned new Naira notes expressed satisfaction with the compliance level in the banks her team had so far visited.
On the team’s mission in the state she said, “we are here to sensitise the people about the new Naira notes and the need for the populace across Benue state to embrace it and ensure that come 31st January 2023 all the old notes in their possession should have been exchanged for the new redesigned notes because beyond that date there is not going to be an extension of the exchange of the old Naira notes.
“We do not want anybody in any village or hamlet here in Benue to be stuck even with a single unit of the old notes. It is a nationwide exercise because we do not want anyone having the old notes in their possession at the expiration of the deadline.”
“And so far all the banks that we have visited are complying with the directive and we have evidence of their compliance. At the ATM machines which is the first medium of cash dispensation to the public, there is total compliance.
‘To ensure that we record expected success we are going all out with jingles, we are going to markets everywhere to ensure that no one is left behind.
“We are going around the Local Government Areas, LGAs of the state and we are meeting the traditional rulers including the Tor Tiv, the Ochi’Idoma as well as the paramount ruler of Igede land. So we are getting to everyone to ensure total success.
“We are not concentrating on the cities because it is a soft sell, where we are concentrating is the rural communities where you have the poor villagers and rural dwellers who may be stuck with the old notes if not reached. We will get to all of them”
Also, a Deputy Director of the Bank Mrs. Owugar Akinbode who also led a team of inspectors assured that the apex bank had enough currency for all the banks, saying “they can come and pick and distribute them and we will continue to monitor them.
“We also appeal to Nigerians who are rejecting the new redesigned currency to please accept them because we are not changing our date, it is still January 31. Give us back the old notes and you will have the new ones for use.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has given a fresh update on the deadline to phase out old naira notes.
CBN disclosed this last Monday in a bulk message to Nigerians.
The apex bank urged Nigerians not to wait until January 31, 2023, the deadline, before depositing their old naira N200, N500, N1,000 at the bank.
“Don’t wait till January 31, 2023, to deposit your old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes with your bank or agent”, the SMS reads.
Earlier, the CBN ordered all commercial banks to load their ATMs with the new naira notes.
The Director of Currency Operations, Mr Ahmed Umar, made this disclosure.
“We, CBN management, have ordered banks to stop putting old notes in their ATMs. They should only put the new notes,” he said.
Checks by National Waves showed that Maitama, Wuse, Jabi, Utako, Kubwa, and Gwarimpa areas of the Federal Capital Territory are yet to comply fully. Same happened to some banks in Lagos as of Friday last week, as this medium’s visits to selected banks in Lekki, Victoria Island, Surulere, Yaba, Alagbado showed that many of them were yet to comply.
Anthony Anya, a spare part dealer at Oladipo expressed surprise and disappointment after an ATM in Mushin Market dispensed old naira notes to him.
He said, “I came here to withdraw money but to my surprise, the N20,000 I withdrew all came out in old notes.”
Another bank customer, Sanya Abiodun said when he used the ATM in Oshodi it dispensed both new and old Naira notes.
Reacting to the development in a chat with this medium a financial inclusion/wealth management expert, Mr Ambrose Omokordion, who is a chief research officer at Investa called on CBN to extend the deadline to avert a new microeconomic problem occasioned by new naira notes scarcity.
“The CBN needs to adequately address the current scarcity of the new notes as most banks have limited quantities to load their ATMs. When you visit most of the ATMs in urban areas, you will discover partial compliance with the CBN’s directives, as the ATMs are loaded with a mixture of old and new notes.
“Due to the impending deadline, the CBN must release its performance on the distribution of the new notes and probably extend the deadline to ensure that scarcity after the January 31 deadline won’t create a new microeconomic problem for the country”, he said.
Earlier, The Senate had urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to urgently extend the withdrawal of old currency notes from circulation from January 31, to June 30, 2023.
The senate’s resolution was sequel to a point of order raised by Sen. Mohammed Ndume (APC-Borno) during the plenary last year November.
The CBN had on October 26, announced plans to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
Raising Orders 41 and 51 of Senate Standing Rule, Ndume said that the call for extension of the date should be considered as a matter of urgent national importance in order to forestall imminent hardship for Nigerians.
Ndume said, “This senate notes that many Nigerian banks on Thursday, December 15, opened their vaults to customers and depositors to exchange their old currency for the newly redesigned currency which has a stipulated deadline of Jan. 31.
“Some Nigerians are already envisaging long queues in the banking hall across the country as a result of people trying to get access to the new naira note.
“It is expected that many Nigerian businesses will start to rejecting the old notes as soon as banks start paying redesigned notes to customers.”
The lawmaker also said that access to the new notes would be compounded by recent circular by the CBN which limited the amount of cash withdrawal by corporate entities.
He started, “The withdrawal of old notes from circulation, if not extended beyond January 31, will make many Nigerians to be thrown into hardship. We need to avoid the repeat of 1984 experience in terms of the withdrawal of old notes.”
Contributing, Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi) said it was true rural dwellers were not aware of the currency redesign.
“So this motion is very apt and timely. If we insist on the date given by CBN, it will cause a lot of hardship for our rural dwellers. Majority of our people live in rural areas where there are no banks and PoS. It is appropriate we extend the time as suggested in the motion,”Aliero said.Meanwhile, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last Wednesday said it would take appropriate measures where necessary to increase money supply in order to boost the availability of the redesigned naira notes nationwide.
The CBN Director/Managing Director, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Mr. Abubakar Abdullahi Kure, disclosed this while conducting on-the-spot checks on some banks to ascertain their level of compliance with the recent apex bank’s directive to dispense the newly redesigned banknotes via ATMs.
He noted that the essence of the nationwide monitoring exercise was to evaluate the situation on the ground as well as take necessary actions following public outcry that the new banknotes were scarce and unavailable even through the ATMs.He said, “The monitoring exercise will end by Saturday when we hope to have enough feedback even if it means tinkering with our policies so that the new naira notes can be everywhere, we will do that.”
Asked to clarify the specific measures that could be adopted, he said, “Tinkering means whether there will be a need to increase supply or the monitoring evaluation may show that there is a diversion for penalties or whether the banks are hoarding the banknotes deliberately or whether the banks are not even picking it; it could be available and the bank may not be picking it – there could be many issues. So, this monitoring exercise will reveal many things.”
However, the enforcement team led by Kure, visited two different banks and found out that only one out of their four ATMs was dispensing the new naira notes while others were still dispensing the old currency notes.On further enquiries into why they were in breach of the CBN’s directive, the bank managers separately told the monitoring team that they had not received the new naira stock.
Disappointed, Kure said the CBN would take inventory of the money they had collected from the CBN in order to verify their claims, adding that any diversion or hoarding of the new banknotes by the banks would be penalised.
He said, “Any bank that diverts – collected the money and is not feeding into ATM or is allowing for withdrawal of new banknotes across over the counter – definitely, the CBN will look into it and declare appropriate penalties.”The monitoring and evaluation exercise of central bank assurance is coming 10 days before the January 31, 2023 deadline it issued for the return of the old banknotes, after which they cease to be legal tender.
Addressing journalists at the end of the exercise, the CBN director said, “The summary is that the new notes are out but either the banks are not picking them from the CBN or the monitoring mechanism will reveal what is happening –whether there is the diversion of the new naira notes to other uses, we don’t know but basically, what we’ve seen is that some ATMs are dispensing new notes, whereas others are dispensing the old notes.“So, those that are dispensing old notes, we would check our records and see what stock they have gotten from the central bank and how they have utilised it. And where there are diversions, we are going to penalise them.“Above all, this exercise is useful because it would put banks on their toes to know at least, that there is a monitoring mechanism now for them to disburse the new notes.
“And those who do not do what is expected, of course, the CBN has the authority and powers to mete out appropriate penalties.”Some of the bank customers interviewed expressed their frustration over the inability to access the new naira notes via ATMs.A POS operator told this medium that she had been unable to access the redesigned banknotes adding that her customers were beginning to reject the old naira notes.Earlier, as part of the activities of the central bank to drive awareness and sensitise the public on the newly redesigned banknotes, Kure also led the team to traditional and religious institutions within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).Kure, alongside other CBN officials, visited the Ona of Abaji/Chairman of the FCT Council of Traditional Rulers, His Royal Majesty, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa, at his palace in Abaji.
Stressing that the January 31 deadline for the return of old naira notes remained sacrosanct, the CBN director urged the people to make hay while the sun shines by depositing the old notes in banks – in order not to incur losses at the expiration of the timeline.Among other things, he explained that the currency redesign project was meant to address inflation, control money supply, and reduce the cost of currency management as well as tame terrorism.
Kure added that traditional institutions remained critical in the sensitisation of the public, particularly rural dwellers on the naira redesign programme.He also assured the traditional ruler that the people can always use their money at will even after exchanging them for the new banknotes, adding that the CBN had established a robust payment infrastructure for people to use in their financial transactions – stressing that there are agency- banking operatives and POS terminals in every nook and cranny of the country.
Responding however, the monarch commended the federal government for deeming it fit to redesign the naira at a crucial time in the country’s history, as well as praised the CBN for embarking on the awareness exercise.The royal father also urged the opportunity to urge the central bank to review the January 31 deadline upwards noting that “up till now, some of my people haven’t seen the new naira”.
While also assuring of the support of the traditional institution towards the betterment of the country, Yunusa made a passionate appeal to the CBN to consider citizens of the FCT for employment at the apex bank.The CBN team also took its awareness campaign to the International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education (ICICE), Abuja, where it was received by its Director General, Dr. Kabir Kabo Usman.
Kure stressed that the objective of the visit was to ensure that religious institutions help to spread awareness of the new naira to the grassroots.Usman, while pledging support to the CBN team said the rural dwellers needed to act fast by depositing their old banknotes in order to save their investments.He said the currency redesign programme was a positive step towards developing the Nigerian economy.
He said, “What we can only do is to encourage the local businesses in rural areas, in local governments to make sure that they go to the banks and deposit all their old notes because, after January 31, there are going to be obsolete.“It is our responsibility to make sure that happens so that we don’t go and create insecurity, more inflation in the process of trying to achieve stability of our economy.”
“We will do our best to inform our followers and let them know that there is a positive thing that is coming out of this…”Meanwhile, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar has advised the CBN to reconsider the January, 31st deadline for the old notes to remain in circulation in the country.
Speaking while receiving the CBN Comptroller in charge of Sokoto State, Dahiru Usman, who led some officers of the Apex bank to intimate him and seek his advice on the redesigned naira notes at his palace, yesterday, the monarch observed that, many people were still unaware of the redesigned naira notes, especially at the rural areas.“We still have people who didn’t know that our naira was redesigned. They could reject the new naira notes when given. If they see the colours they will think is a fake currency.
” The CBN ought to have considered stakeholders right from the day the resignation was announced.“We have credible means to step down the information to the common man because the conventional media is for the elites.“You should have used traditional rulers to pass the message down to the masses but you didn’t involve us, that is why we keep quite.”Sultan Sa’ad identified insecurity as another challenge as some people could note move large sum of money from their village to banks in the city because they could be robbed or kidnapped along the way.
He then asked “what will be the fate of these people after January, 31st deadline.”Earlier, the branch controller said they were in the palace to inform the Sultan about the naira redesign project.The apex bank visited some banks to monitor their compliance with the CBN directive of dispensing redesigned notes to customers through their ATMs, just as they sensitised traders on the need to deposit their money in banks and adopt e-Naira transaction.
