Commercial banks in Anambra State have started loading the new naira notes in their automated teller machines, ATM, for their customers following threats by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to sanction them for allegedly not cooperating with the apex bank in the implementation of the new monetary policy.
During its three days sensitization programme that took officials of the CBN to the major markets in the three cities of Onitsha, Awka and Nnewi in the state, most of the traders complained that their banks were still paying them the old notes despite the directive from the CBN.
As part of the sensitization programme in the state, officials of CBN held meetings with branch managers of the banks to work out ways for a seamless transition to the new policy.
In fact, the staff of CBN were deployed to most of the commercial banks to monitor cash disbursement. It was the discovery that the banks were not paying the new money that necessitated further meetings, such that by the weekend, all the commercial banks had started loading only new notes in their ATM.
A customer of one of the first-generation banks in Onitsha, Mr Kingsley Nwankwo told Vanguard that he was paid N30,000 new notes in the ATM on Friday.
Also in Nnewi, all the customers who queued up for money received the new notes in all the banks.
Meanwhile, many traders in Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka markets have pleaded with the CBN to extend the deadline for the old naira notes to cease to be legal tender.
They argued that the redesigned naira notes were still in short supply in the commercial banks, even as they accused some banks of selling the new notes in the markets.
They also wondered what would happen to the old notes that would be generated on January 31, 2023, which is the last day for the circulation of the old notes.
A food vendor at the building materials market in Awka, Mrs Chika Odionye said she does her business up to 10 pm every day and asked what would happen to the money she would make on January 31 because the banks must have closed for business by the time she would close for the day.
“I plead with the government to extend this naira change until all the old notes are deposited in the banks”, she said.
However, the branch controller of CBN in Awka, Mr Benedict Maduagwu advised everyone to ensure that their old N200, N500 and N1000 notes were deposited in their banks by January 31, warning that after that day, nobody would accept them from them.
Vanguard
