By Kamil Opeyemi and Halimah Olamide
In spite of the much publicised order by the Central Bank of Nigeria to banks to dispense old Naira notes, citizens are still groaning under the burden of the scarcity.
NPO Reports that many banks as at Wednesday found it impossible to meet the demands of depositors who besiege branches for withdrawals.
A quick check around many of the banks showed that in some of them, some automated teller machines were dispensing but with long queues.
At the UBA Ogba branch which was visited by our correspondent, depositors gathered in their hundreds while only two ATMs were working.
A depositor who spoke to NPO Reports at the Fidelity branch in Ogba said he came to the bank very early with the belief that he would be one of the few to get their first.
“But I came here only to meet a long line of people who want to withdraw. That has taken me up to three hours now to be here. And to worsen the case, I think there is some kind of fluctuation in the dispensing capacity of the machines and so, when one person gets there, he ends up spending up to 15 minutes and he either gets cash or he is disappointed,” said Mr. Donatus Nwaneri, a teacher at one of the public schools in Ikeja.
The apex bank in a statement by the Ag Director of Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, said: ”In compliance with the established tradition of obedience to court orders and sustenance of the Rule of Law Principle that characterized the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, and by extension, the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as a regulator, Deposit Money Banks operating in Nigeria have been directed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of March 3, 2023.
”Accordingly, the CBN met with the Bankers’ Committee and has directed that the old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes remain legal tender alongside the redesigned banknotes till December 31, 2023. Consequently, all concerned are directed to conform accordingly.”
Recall that the naira scarcity began since last year after the apex bank introduced the new notes and giving depositors deadlines to swap their old notes.
The problem persisted until last two days ago when President Muhammadu Buhari dissociated himself from the actions of the CBN and the alleged antics of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Mallami.
Although, the apex bank and the commercial banks have assured that the long queues at banks would soon fizzle out, there are concerns that the alleged slow pace of allocation of the notes to banks from the CBN may make such expectations a mirage.
An official of one of the biggest commercial banks told our correspondent at the branch in Ikorodu Wednesday afternoon that the queues will still be around for the next couple of weeks.
“Judging by what is happening behind the scene, I don’t see how normalcy could be restored earlier the next two weeks. This can only happen if the CBN changes the current style of allocation to banks,” the official who preferred to be anonymous stated.