• New banknotes are still in short supply
• Only one of the nine banks in Gboko issued new notes
• In Benue, new notes are considered souvenirs
• Kano customers intercept the cash register through mutilated notes
• Long queues at ATMs pay new naira
• Apex Bank started sensitization program
Close to a month after the new banknotes were released, millions of Nigerians are still struggling to get a feel for the currency.
The situation monitored by The Guardian, yesterday, is almost the same in the metropolitan city.
This comes as many banks have been penalized for flouting the directives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and continue to open automated teller machines (ATMs) with old notes, which will be phased out within three weeks.
The Director of the CBN (Department of Currency Operations), Ahmed Umar, at a training session for state directors of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Abuja, on Tuesday, directed banks to move to a new record in ATM cash operations to facilitate quick circulation.
A visit to banks in Lagos revealed that many ATMs are still dispensing old notes while requests for new notes over the counter are being turned down due to lack of supply.
Oluwayomi Adeyinka, a customer of Access Bank at College Bus Stop, Isolo-Mushin Road, asked for a new N50,000 note, yesterday, in exchange for an old one. Cashier, however, to the person who can not have new in that amount.
Some banks have sent notices asking customers to visit ATMs to withdraw new notes. But as of yesterday, ATMs in the bank’s branches are still paying out old notes. For example, all the ATMs on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport road are still filled with old naira.
Speaking to The Guardian, in Abuja, Mrs. Bridget Olawole, a customer of the bank, said she was paid N200,000 cash in old notes over the counter. His request for some new records was denied.
He said: “I wanted to see the redesigned notes for the first time, but I was very disappointed that I was still paid with old notes. The policy of the government is not here or in many cases, but the biggest disappointment is that I was paid with dirty old notes and broken.
Also narrating her experience, Mrs Stella Sunday said she could not pay N100,000 in old notes at the PoS stand at Jabi Market, Abuja. He explained that unexpectedly, many Nigerians have not seen or tasted the new record.
The customer requested that the CBN provide the notes at each withdrawal period, even as they requested an extension of the deadline to dispose of the old notes.
Commenting on the development, the Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Calabar, Omo-Ogun Ajai, urged Nigerians to be patient while the monetary authorities find a lasting solution to the circulation hiccups.
In Calabar, some ATMs dispensed new N1,000 notes while the majority continued to dispense old ones. N200 and N500 notes are usually dispensed at the counter.
The CBN has directed banks to disburse N200 and other low denominations at ATM terminals as a matter of policy. However, that seems to have changed as a spokesperson for the apex bank said any denomination is acceptable.
Long queues took up some of the new bill-paying ATMs in Calabar, The Guardian observed yesterday.
At the counter, old notes are still being paid, so customers are asking when the bank will stop issuing notes that are not supposed to be legal tender at the end of this month.
The customer explained: “For anyone who gives a new note, there is a look of suspicion on their face. People don’t even know. There are still a lot of old notes in circulation, and I didn’t see them go out of circulation before January 30.
“I don’t see the miracle it will take to enlighten people, a few weeks to the end of the month, to understand the new record. Because, take it or leave it, most people don’t understand it.
“They should extend the deadline and gradually allow people to gain knowledge of the new notes. The new notes you will see, the common ones, are the N1,000. The N200 and N500 notes are still rare.
Apart from Makurdi, the new bill is considered a souvenir in other parts of Benue State.
In Gboko Council, for example, all the banks that The Guardian visited are still offering old notes at ATMs and counters. The story is no different in Oturkpo Council and Zaki Biam, headquarters of the Criminal Council.
When The Guardian visited the Gboko branch of the second generation bank yesterday morning, the ATM was still dispensing old naira notes. Inside the bank, the situation is no different.
The bank manager said that the old notes would be replaced with new ones during the day, which was actually true. Only the bank, out of eight others that has a branch in Gboko, issued new notes.
There was confusion in Asaba, Delta State, yesterday, as some commercial banks released new notes in spades while others paid out old notes to customers.
One customer, who expressed his disappointment over “the situation”, accused the CBN of taking the country’s complexity into account in its implementation strategy and called for a full evaluation.
Mr Ikechukwu Victor, another customer, said the new notes should flood the country, making them more visible than the old ones. He described the shortage as unfortunate.
Another customer, who did not give his name, advised that the old naira notes coming into the bank should not be paid.
One of the customers who asked from The Guardian in Owerri, Imo State, said: “I went to the bank to cancel. I was paid in my old note. But I saw that they gave a new one to a chosen person, maybe someone with whom I have a personal relationship.
While the new notes are a rare commodity, some passengers and traders in Asaba view some of them with suspicion. Some rejected it outright, describing him as fake.
In the ancient city of Kano, long queues took several banks that paid new money. Some bank customers interviewed said they had not seen the new notes.
A businessman, Kamalu Sanusi, 32, said the new record was absent in Kano. “Every time I ask the bank teller, they say the peak bank is not available yet,” he said.
Bank officials are also having a tough time with customers rejecting damaged and mutilated notes.
Ilu Muhammad, a customer, said it is unfortunate that banks will give out mutilated notes when they should have been sent to the CBN to be destroyed and replaced with new notes.
Most of the commercial banks in the Katsina State capital and neighboring councils do not have a different story to what we get elsewhere in the state. Some have started issuing new notes but the old ones still dominate banking transactions.
Meanwhile, the CBN has started a nationwide transparency campaign in major markets, supermarkets and other public places on redesigned motes and cashless policies.
The apex bank said in Abuja, yesterday, that the exercise will continue until the end of the month when the old notes will be withdrawn from the public.
“We cannot have new notes in large numbers and still give out old notes. We also feel that loading new notes in ATMs will increase traffic. We have witnessed a low queue at our machines now, mainly because of the new notes that have been given,” he said. banker at The Guardian.
He noted that Nigerians have nothing to worry about the availability of the new notes, saying the CBN has taken adequate steps to ensure their availability.
“The initial anxiety by Nigerians is understandable. The anxiety of asking for new notes is also not misplaced. There is a rush now, but it will gradually disappear as we approach the end of the month,” he said.