The apex bank decided last year to start circulating the new notes, giving people until 31 January to get rid of their old ones. The deadline was later moved to February 10.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had fixed today, Friday, February 10, as the deadline for the use of the old banknotes as legal tender in the country.
The apex bank decided last year to start circulating the new notes, giving people until 31 January to get rid of their old ones. The deadline was later moved to February 10.
Sequel to the non-availability of the new banknotes, some governors approached the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, seeking an order for the suspension of the deadline.
After hearing the ex parte application, the apex bank on Wednesday temporarily suspended Friday's deadline to end the legal tender status of old banknotes, which had caused a cash crisis in the nation.
The ruling also came shortly after the International Monetary Fund said Nigeria should consider extending its deadline for the swapping of old banknotes because of the disruption to trade and payments caused by a shortage of new notes.
However, SaharaReporters observed on Friday that residents of Enugu State are no longer returning the old currency notes as before. They freely traded with the old notes in the absence of the new banknotes.
During visits to a branch of Union Bank along Airport Road, Okpara Avenue, First Bank branch at Airport Corner Emene, UBA branch on Okpara Avenue, and Access Bank Okpara Avenue, it was observed that customers were locked outside the bank gates. No one was either seen going in or coming out of the banks.
Upon inquiry, it was gathered that hundreds of the people locked outside wanted to make withdrawals. At Union Bank, Okpara Avenue, it was gathered that out of the 502 customers whose names were on a list at the gate, none was there to deposit money.
"All of them in the queue want to withdraw money. Unfortunately, there are no new currency notes to dispense to the customers; that is why we locked the gate," an employee of the bank who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
At the Ogbete main market, petty traders and transporters were busy trading with the old banknotes.
A fruit seller, Onyinyechi Agbo, said, "I went to the market to buy fruits from local suppliers and they told me that they would not accept the old currency notes but after I told them that the Central Bank had suspended the deadline and some grudges, they collected it. I'm accepting old currency notes but the problem is that most people had deposited theirs before the extension.
"Most of the old banknotes you see in circulation come from politicians."
Similarly, following the Supreme Court's interim order prohibiting the apex bank from enforcing its 10 February deadline, Sokoto residents besieged commercial banks and ATMs on Friday due to the persistent scarcity of both old and new naira notes.
Due to the apex court’s interim order, most traders in Sokoto, Kebbi, Kwara and Zamfara states have started accepting the old naira notes as legal tender, which some of them had stopped accepting some days before the deadline. They didn’t want to have any old notes with them by the time the deadline would lapse.
However, what seems to be the headache for most residents currently is the need for more availability of both the old and new Naira notes.
A visit to Shehu Shagari Market in Sokoto revealed that the rate of business activities had reduced in the market as many traders complained of low patronage because most of the residents are still struggling to get cash. The story is similar at Oja-Oba Market in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital and other major markets in Zamfara and Kebbi states.
Similarly, SaharaReporters gathered that banks and ATMs were equally besieged by frustrated Nigerians who are forced to stay in long queues for hours to withdraw cash.
One of the residents who identified himself as Aliyu said, “I do not even care if it is old or new notes. Traders are now collecting old notes. I have been here for the past five hours because I came here immediately after I had Fajir prayer. But to my surprise, I still met a lot of people in the queue.”
Meanwhile, SaharaReproters had reported that the Nigerian government would obey the Supreme Court's decision to suspend the February 10 deadline for the exchange of naira notes, according to Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation.
Malami confirmed this in an interview on Arise TV on Thursday.