By Emmanuel Uffot
Few days to the January 31 deadline fix by the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) for the old N200, N500 and N1000 existing Naira notes to seize being legal tender, there is anxiety, confusion, lamentation and despair among Nigerians. The anxiety now enveloping most Nigerians both in the urban and rural areas stem from the Scarcity of the newly designed Naira notes which is replacing the old wants with effect from Tuesday January 31,2023.
Across the major commercial cities in Nigeria, the story is the same. The banks, the Automated Teller Machines ( ATM) and Point of Sales (POS) do not have enough of the new notes to meet the demands of customers.
While the banks are said to be having short supply of the new notes to service their ATM given the directive from CBN that Deposit Money Banks ( DMB) should load thier ATM with new notes to facilitate the circulation of the new notes and curtail customers thronging the banking halls to get the new notes, but this has not been the case as most ATMs as at Saturday January 28, being four days to the deadline terminating the use of new notes in N200, N500 and N1000 denominations are still dispensing the old notes or some a mixture of old and new. If some of the ATMs still have some fractions of the new notes to dispense others are not dispensing any money because the operating banks do not have the new notes to load in there, and the banks would rather allow them empty, instead of incurring the wrath of the apex bank by loading old notes.
Instructively, in the light of this helpless situation, the apex bank and commercial banks have resorted to blame game.
While the commercial banks blame the CBN for not giving them enough stock to meet their customers demands in view of the deadline stirring everyone one in the face. They insist that it is due to the limited stock they have from CBN that force them to continue giving out old notes or ration new ones. But the apex bank insist that they have enough stock and blame banks for not picking the notes to service customers and payment channels.
The lamentation of the customers now in desperation has prompted CBN to come up with threat of sanctions against banks and other measures to enhance the circulation.
On the part of the commercial banks, the apex bank read the riot act that banks that apparent hoard the new notes or still load their ATM with old notes will be sanction. Again the CBN has place a N1million Naira daily fine on banks that fail to turn up to take their consignment. In order to effect compliance, the CBN has set up a monitoring committee to monitor banks and met out appropriate sanctions to those hoarding, diverting the new notes or dispensing old notes.
Checks at banks in the last three days has noticed large crowds of customers going for the purpose of depositing new notes and getting new ones.
For POS, most of them are still dispensing the old notes and may be a fraction of N1000 denomination as many Nigerians are yet to set eye on how the N200 denomination looks like.
If the those in the urban area are lucky to be informed of the new Naira notes in existence and the old ones to seize being legal tender from January 31, the same can not be said of the banking and unbanking populace in the rural areas.
Findings revealed that most people in the rural areas have neither seen or heard of the existence of new Naira notes in N200, N500 and N1000 denominations to replace the old notes in that denominations and that the deadline for collection of old notes will be on January 31.
So the CBN which has come under the cross for coming out with this policy many see as unfriendly because of the short timeline, have chosen to embark on sensitisation in markets and churches.
Specifically, the apex bank has embarked on sensitisation of this new notes Initiative in markets in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Borno, Yobe and some other northern States where many are known to keep their money outside the formal banking system.
In Akwa Ibom, a team of officials from CBN led by a director Mr Dominic Ekanemesang visited some churches to sensitise people on the need to go and exchange their old notes for new ones and the motive behind it.
At Sacred Heart Catholic Parish Aka Offot, Uyo last Sunday January 22, he had advised the congregation to embrace the cashless policy. He explained that the aim is to reduce too much cash in circulation to curb inflation as well as check the use of high denominations for illicit transactions like kidnapping,money laundering and sponsorship of terrorism. ” We want to ensure we don’t have too.much money in circulation. Please pass the message to your relatives that cashless policy has come to stay. We want to safeguard the system, we want to bring citizens into the financial system. So if you don’t have a bank account, this is an opportunity for you to go and open a bank account and deposit the old notes as CBN will not want any bank customer to lose his or her money “. The CBN director appealed to church leaders to help in enlightening their members. He also reiterated the commitment of CBN to sanction erring banks that are not circulating the new notes.
However, as a measure to reach out to the rural populace, CBN has introduced a cash swap programme to enable them exchange their old notes especially those that don’t have bank account.
Under the arrangement, certified agents of banks and money mobile operators will go into the rural areas and exchange a maximum of N10000 per person and amounts above that shall be treated as cash- in – hand deposits into wallets or bank accounts.
The programme required agents to capture BVN, NIN and voters cards of the customers specifically those without bank accounts.
Again under the cash swap programme, agent may instantly on request open a wallet or account based on CBN Know Your Customer ( KYC) framework. CBN said this will ensure this category of people are able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue costs.
The cash swap programme also require designated eligible agents to collect redesigned notes from mobile banks in line with the revised cash withdrawal limit policy.
Similarly, agents are permitted to charge cash out fees for the cash swap transactions but are forbidden from charging any further commission to customers for this particular service. They are also required to render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions while the banks do same to CBN.
To emulate the CBN in measures to address the difficulties encountered by people in exchanging the old notes for new ones few days to the deadline, some banks introduced Saturday and Sunday banking this week just for the purpose of deposits.
However, what has become worrisome to many is the fact that most business people like traders, service providers like Power Holding company limited among others have already started rejecting the old Naira notes days to the expiration of the deadline. This development has added more headache to the people and has caused cash crunt in most homes.
Even the POS some of whom are also in short supply of the new notes are also rejecting the old notes as deposits, even as their customers are also rejecting old notes when making withdrawals.
The churches are not left out. Most churches had since last Wednesday issued directives to members not to come with old Naira notes for offering this Sunday January 29, being 48 hours to the deadline. Some private schools had also done The stand of those now rejecting the old Naira notes ahead of the deadline we gathered, has to do with the difficulties currently encountered in exchanging them.
The problems associated with this and the likelihood of many banking and unbanking customers losing their money, has led to clarion calls from many quarters for CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele to heed to the pledge by traditional rulers, business people, entrepreneurs, National Assembly and state governors to extend the deadline due to its abruptness, but the CBN boss has remain defiant, insisting that the January 31,2023 deadline to end usage of old notes remain sacrosanct.
The unshaken position of the CBN Governor on the issue inspite of entreaties by many to shift ground, has cemented the notion that he has the full backing of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Again, not withstanding the aim of the new cash policy as posited by CBN some of which are to stem inflation by curbing too much circulation of money and checking money laundering and ransom demands by kidnappers and terrorist gangs, many politicians and political pundits believe the suddenness of the change in Naira design and the short timeline to ease out old notes may be targeted at politicians that were hoarding their notes to use for the coming election. The governors have said so. The Presidential Candidate of APC Bola Tinubu said so also few days ago.
The Speaker House of Representatives Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila had threatened to invoke a warrant of arrest on the CBN Governor if he refused to honour the House summons last Thursday to tell the House why he does not want to heed the call by well meaning Nigerians to extend the deadline. But the CBN rebuffed him and did not attend.
For many Nigerians,the next 76 hours which will draw the curtain on the legal tender status of the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes will be something to remember as it is very unlikely that Emefiele will succumb to pressure to extend the January 31 deadline.
