Reports have indicated that banks across the country have refused to accept old naira notes.
It was gathered that banks issued circulars to some of the filling stations, urging them to stop accepting the old bills, as the DMBs would not collect them from marketers.
According to Punch, many traders in the Federal Capital Territory, Ogun, and Lagos states have started rejecting the old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes.
The traders claimed that old notes collected from sales made were rejected by banks on Friday morning.
ADULAWO NEWS recalls that the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele during an interactive session with the House of Representative ad hoc committee on the currency redesign and naira swap policy on Tuesday said the CBN will accept the old naira from banks after the announced deadline.
He referred to the CBN act mandates the apex bank to continue to accept old notes after their expiration.
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He said, Section 20 (3) of the CBN act states: “Notwithstanding sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the president and after giving reasonable notice in that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this act, shall be redeemed by the bank upon demand.”
However, it seems that despite reassurance from the CBN, the banks are refusing to accept the old notes.
Speaking to Punch, the Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, said, “There is a serious crisis now; bankers are not helping the system.
“They are passing circulars around now, asking filling stations not to collect old naira notes again. The bankers are saying filling stations should stop collecting old notes. And now, many of these filling stations are closing because where they make their deposits, the old notes are no longer permitted there.
“If this should continue, it is going to lead to a serious problem. They are asking us not to accept old notes because they won’t collect them from us. This is what is happening. So many of our members are now closing sales.”
He said some of these banks closed operations for the day before the expected time, stressing that Nigerians should not blame the filling stations for not selling products whenever they noticed the closure of retail outlets.
When reminded about the directive by the Federal Government that marketers should use point-of-sales machines and accept bank transfers, the IPMAN official said his members were willing to comply.
“Some of these bank transfers are usually reversed, while at times, the transferred money will not get to the receiver. These are the problems we face with the network providers.
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“However, we’ve been taking the pains to see that we help the government in alleviating the plights of the masses. But if these banks are now telling filling stations that they are not going to collect the old notes, it is going to be a problem.
“So, it is better for the authorities to call these banks to order immediately, otherwise, by the time we shut down, it is going to create a massive problem nationwide,” Shuaibu added.