Members of the management team of the Central Bank of Nigeria are to meet on Monday to review the crisis that the naira redesign programme has generated and come up with solutions to the acute cash crunch that has nearly paralysed the country.
PUNCH reported that the meeting would also consider the advice given by the National Council of State that the apex bank should print more redesigned N1,000, N500 and N200 notes or re-circulate the old ones withdrawn from circulation in order to ease the current cash crunch.
It was learnt that the meeting, which will hold at CBN headquarters in Abuja, would involve the top echelon of the apex bank, and a fresh directive might be issued to Deposit Money Banks on whether to keep accepting deposits of the old notes or not.
An official of the CBN told one of our correspondents on Saturday that a decision would likely be made on the continuous circulation of the old notes at the meeting.
He, however, said the advice to print more money would not be straightforward due to logistic reasons and the fact that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc had capacity issues as regards the printing of the new notes.
SpeedUp9ja had reported that the CBN was considering contracting foreign firms to print the redesigned naira notes as the Mint was unable to meet the demand for the currency, thus leading to the current nationwide scarcity.
It was reported that the Mint had succeeded in printing N500bn worth of the new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes and might not have the capacity to do more than that at the moment, whereas the CBN had withdrawn about N2.1tn of the old notes from circulation.
The apex bank official told PUNCH that the advice given by the Council of State would be weighed carefully vis-à-vis the security implications of the continued scarcity of the notes, the cost of printing more notes and re-circulating the old ones, and the implementation of the Supreme Court interim order that the old notes should be allowed to circulate alongside the new ones.
Confusion reigns
However, developments in the last few days have thrown bankers, traders and ordinary Nigerians into confusion regarding the acceptability or otherwise of the old notes as legal tender.
While the Federal Government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had indicated that the Supreme Court order would be complied with, he also said it would be appealed.
A manager of a Tier-1 bank, who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, said there was confusion everywhere as the CBN had not given any counter directive to its earlier order that the old notes should not be in circulation again from Friday, February 10, 2023.
The bank manager said, “The whole thing has thrown us into confusion as we don’t know what to do. The last communication we received from the CBN was that we should begin to pay customers a maximum of N20,000 over the counter and that the February 10 deadline for the withdrawal of the old notes stays.
“We have stopped accepting old naira deposits from customers. We stopped on Friday. For instance, we didn’t open today (Saturday) to collect deposits as earlier directed by the central bank. We received an advisory from our zonal head to stop collecting old notes from Friday. Except there is a new directive on Monday, we will not take deposits of old naira notes again.”
Meanwhile, some petrol filling stations in Lagos and Ogun states, on Saturday, rejected the old naira notes from customers and insisted on new notes, transfers and Point of Sale payment only.
A similar situation played out in supermarkets and fast food restaurants, while some traders in different markets rejected the old notes.
Some residents of Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, have urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, address the nation on the suspension/extension of the deadline for the old naira note swap.
The residents, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in separate interviews on Saturday, said the appeal became imperative due to the rejection of the old naira notes by traders and petrol stations across the state.
The residents, who expressed worry about the development, noted that the refusal by the business community in Abakaliki to accept the old notes amounted to a contravention of the recent Supreme Court ruling suspending the February 10 deadline set by the CBN.
A lawyer, Mr Lawrance Onwe, said Nigerians deserved to know from the government the true position of the naira swap so as to avoid the confusion, chaos and panic the development had generated since the deadline elapsed on Friday.
A civil servant, Mr Silas Nkpuma, said he almost engaged in a brawl with a commercial motorcyclist, who insisted on being paid with a new naira note.
He said, “I hadn’t any new naira notes on me and the man refused a mobile transfer. I was held hostage by the cyclist until a good Samaritan intervened and bailed me out.
He said, “I hadn’t any new naira notes on me and the man refused a mobile transfer. I was held hostage by the cyclist until a good Samaritan intervened and bailed me out.
