By Bilesanmi Abayomi
Bangs have continued to trail the newly redesigned naira notes after they were officially unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari unveiled the new currency notes recently before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the state house, Abuja.
The redesigned naira notes are in N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations.
A visit by a Kosofe Post reporter to Zenith Bank, GTBank, along Anthony Village on Tuesday observed that the banking hall was completely under lock while the ATM queue was long.
However, many reactions have taken a swipe at the Federal Government and the CBN for what many described as the worst implementation of monetary policy in the history of Nigeria.
Reacting, the Publisher of the Kosofe Post, Bilesanmi Abayomi, said, “Both the old and new notes are difficult to get via the banking hall, ATMs, and POS machines, and it’s not easy to make a transfer. At ATMs, you have to queue as if you want to refill your car, wasting productive time, and you can’t withdraw more than N20,000, while at POS vendors, you have to pay high charges to withdraw your hard-earned money.
“For instance, on Thursday at Mile 12 International Market, Kosofe, we paid as much as N5000 to get N30,000 from a POS vendor on a normal day before the introduction of the poorly thought-out monetary policy, which was not more than N500. It’s the worst implementation by the FG and CBN in the history of Nigeria. I will implore the CBN to put more adequate measures in place to ensure that there are enough new notes in circulation to ameliorate the suffering of the masses, and also that financial institutions should also upgrade their systems and reduce arbitrary money-to-transfer charges to enhance the cashless policy.”
According to Oloye Salami Oluwaseun, “The CBN cashless and new naira notes redesign policy may be politically bad and good for economic growth, but the Nigerian banks must be ready to improve and upgrade their transfer system equipment to serve the customers better and achieve the main objectives of the program.
“The downtrodden are badly injured and currently at the receiving end and suffering from the collateral damage effects of the poor banking infrastructure system in the country; hence, the government should intervene in the current banking retardation situation to ameliorate the untold hardship being experienced by the poor masses as a result of the CBN Governor’s unprepared and insincere implementation policies. Lastly, the CBN Governor should be held accountable if anything happens to this country. May Nigeria succeed!”
A resident of Ikorodu, Busayo Ojuroye, said some pepper grinders in her area no longer accept old naira notes; they would rather ask you to go and bring the new ones later.
The Mile 12 International Market, Kosofe, the largest agricultural and allied foodstuff market in Nigeria and West Africa, is yet to get its footing after its chairman, Alhaji Shehu Usman, popularly known as Sampam, gave his views on the naira redesign and its impact on traders.
POS operator advises CBN not to extend deadline for old naira note swap beyond an hour
A POS operator, Florence Anolaje, has appeared before the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government not to further extend the deadline for the old naira note swap beyond an hour on February 10.
She made the call in the Anthony Village area of Kosofe while speaking with the Kosofe Post on Tuesday.
Recounting her experience, she said, “The issue is above us and the masses. We are suffering too much. It has created more hardships on top of the ones we have already faced. I am a POS operator. I’m not enjoying it at all on any level.”
Following the astronomical charges POS operators charged customers to withdraw funds, she denied making any extraordinary profits as a result of cash scarcity.
Reacting, she said, “Where do we see the cash? The banks where we normally collect the cash are not giving us even one naira. As I am, I have not received one naira from any bank. So where do I make the money? I don’t have any other source to make the money. So I’m not enjoying it. Rather, it has crippled my business.”
While lamenting the extension, she urged CBN not to put pressure on a further extension.
She said, “The extension they gave worsened the whole thing. Because everybody has zero on their mind on the 31st of January, we send our money to the bank only for them to come on Sunday, January 29, to extend the deadline. No, that was the greatest mistake they made. They shouldn’t have extended the date because this is the worst situation.
“Before we even go and see small, but since CBN said we can collect N500,000 in a week, we were still managing it to do our business. But now that we don’t even see N1000, much less N20,000, they say they should pay at the counter. “We’re not getting any sushi from anywhere, as I am crippling my business. My advice to them is that they should not extend even an hour beyond February 10; anybody that is not satisfied to swap old Naira notes should let them expire in their hands and let this suffering be lessened for us,” POS operator Florence Anolaje said.
The redesign of the naira is more of a political issue than an economic one. — Ex-Banker
A former banker with Access Bank, Olusegun Abdul, has described the naira redesign as more of a political issue than an economic one.
He said, “It’s more of a political issue than an economic one. It’s normal for the CBN of every country to change currencies to curb inflation and mop up excess liquidity, but this particular one is wrongly timed.”
Segun noted that it’s too close to the general election, and the time given as the deadline was too short. It’s gradually defeating the purpose for which it was designed.
He further advised the CBN to extend the note swap to prevent further anger from the citizens.
“They should extend the old note swap or risk the possibility of the country being engulfed in a revolution. Adding that it’s already happening in Abeokuta, Benin, and Ibadan, and more cities are on the verge of joining,” he said.