Despite CBN Order Naira Crisis Presist

Following the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) order that old N599 and N1000 notes remain legal tender till December 31, 2023, in line with the Supreme Court ruling, commercial banks across the country are beginning to run out of the old currencies.

This development has, however, led to severe hardship and pain for several bank customers seeking to withdraw funds on Wednesday.

While some bank officials said their stocks of old notes were beginning to run low, others said they had exhausted the old currencies in their vaults.

New Telegraph had on Monday reported that the apex bank directed all deposit money banks to pay out and accept the old notes from their customers.

This came after President Muhammadu Buhari, said he did not stop the CBN and the Attorney General of the Federation Office from complying with the Supreme Court judgement ordering that old naira notes should remain legal tender.

However, commercial banks which began the disbursements of old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to their customers on Tuesday told The PUNCH on Wednesday that had started running out of the old currencies.

This made several bank customers become stranded in banking halls as well as in major cities and towns.

This happened amid an acute shortage of new notes which led to long queues in banking halls and Automate Teller Machine galleries in several cities and towns.

The CBN which has kept mute on whether it will release more old notes into circulation is reportedly opposed to the recirculation of the old currencies due to its determination to push the cashless policy initiative to a logical end

Multiple sources close to the CBN said that the apex bank might not release the old notes in its custody to banks anytime soon, arguing that doing so might be tantamount to reversing the “progress” it had achieved on the cashless initiative.

Also, a senior bank executive who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The CBN did not print enough new notes and does not want to return the old notes it has collected because it is still driving its cashless policy.”

Also, a top industry executive close to the CBN said the apex bank might not return the old notes to banks because it would reverse its cashless policy.

The managing director of a tier-2 bank said the CBN had yet to officially communicate to banks on whether it would release old notes to them or not.

He said, ‘” We don’t know if the CBN has destroyed the old notes in its custody or not. As we speak, we don’t also know if it will release the old notes to banks again but the truth is banks don’t have many of these old notes in their vaults. Sadly, customers are not depositing much again.”

“Many of us are expecting the CBN to disburse the old notes before Saturday. However, we are concerned they may not do so to curtail vote-buying on Saturday.

However, findings by Punch revealed that several banks had run low on old notes amid a scarcity of new notes.

Several banks said on Wednesday their old notes stock had gone down.

An official of the FCMB branch in Ikeja told The PUNCH its stock of old notes had been exhausted by 2 pm.

“We exhausted our old notes by 2 pm. Our head office has yet to give us any fresh supply because it does not have. We can only hope the CBN will supply soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, visits to the branches of the United Bank for Africa Plc, Heritage Bank and First Bank of Nigeria Limited in the Navy Town, Ojo and Alakija areas of Lagos State on Wednesday indicated that none of the banks had cash to dispense to their customers.

At the First Bank branch in Navy Town, officials said the centre could not determine when cash would be brought to the branch.

The Heritage Bank branch inside Mammy Market at Navy Town and the UBA at Alakija did not also dispense cash via over-the-counter and Automated Teller Machines.

Meanwhile, an accountant at a clearing and forwarding firm in Apapa, Lagos, O’leke Japhet, who resumed work on Tuesday after several days of working from home, said the situation was worrisome.

Findings showed the situation was the same in other cities. This made several customers to be stranded.

A First Bank official in the Akure branch, Ondo State, who spoke with The PUNCH on condition of anonymity, said the centre had run out of both the old and new notes.

He said, “Today, we paid N5,000 to each customer, yesterday, we paid N20,000; on Monday, we did N20,000.  We have run out of both old and new notes now.

“People are not depositing old notes again. A branch that gets close to N100m in cash deposit or more can hardly boast of N1m now. Most of our branches are advising customers to use alternative channels to transfer funds.

In the same vein, an official of  UBA in the Alagbako branch, Akure, Ondo State, said the lender did not have enough funds in its vault.