On Tuesday, motorists, fuel stations, retailers, traders, and other types of bank customers rejected the recent move by some Deposit Money Banks to recirculate old N500 and N1,000 notes.
The development occurred approximately 48 hours after some commercial banks, including Sterling Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc, began distributing the contentious N500 and N1,000 notes to their branches in major cities in Nigeria.
Following the Supreme Court’s order last week approving the use of old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes as legal tender for ten months, commercial banks decided to re-circulate the notes.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court issued an order allowing the old and new naira notes to be used together until December 31, 2023.
The Federal Government’s naira redesign policy, according to the court, was in violation of the 1999 Constitution.
However, The PUNCH’s findings from Tuesday revealed that key bank customer groups had begun to reject the old N500 and N1,000 notes that were being recirculated.
The CBN, the banking sector regulator, had not yet approved the use of the old notes as legal tender, with the exception of the old N200 note, according to the majority of their arguments.
Oil marketers kicked Oil marketers on Tuesday, insisting that Deposit Money Banks had not yet instructed them to accept the old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers in Abuja, Nasarawa, and Niger states.
Despite the Supreme Court’s and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s orders, some filling stations, particularly those run by independent oil marketers, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited refused to accept the old naira notes on Tuesday.
Attendants at the filling station of the NNPC Limited in Nyanya, a significant border town between Abuja and Nasarawa State, stated that they had not yet received instructions from their superiors regarding the acceptance of the previous notes.
In a similar vein, the attendants at the Khalif filling station in Kubwa, Abuja, which is run by an independent marketer, stated that they would not accept the old naira bills. Instead, they asked customers to pay with a Point of Sale Service machine or through bank transfers.
In addition to filling stations, the majority of merchants in the capital city and neighboring states had not yet begun to accept the old notes.
“We are awaiting the directive from the president. The President hasn’t said anything. However, “of course, we will accept the notes if the banks say we should collect the old notes,” Mohammed Shuaibu, Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria in Abuja-Suleja, stated.
“But as it stands now, we have not received any official confirmation,” he continued. We only have personal accounts of it. I can assure you that we will easily comply once the banks tell our members to accept it.
“I haven’t looked at the old N500 and N1,000 notes until this very moment that I’m speaking to you, but we are hearing that the banks have started giving out the old notes. It is only what we hear.
Although Shuaibu acknowledged that marketers were aware of the Supreme Court’s order, he insisted that the president had instructed the CBN to return the old bills to the banks.
“Well, as marketers, we want the economy to run smoothly and are prepared to work together if they have agreed that the money should be used. However, I don’t believe the banks have instructed their customers to bring the old notes at this time.
The IPMAN official stated, “I’ve not heard about such, and at the same time I’ve not seen it, because I don’t know where they are going to manufacture the money, for we were told that the presidential directive was that they should destroy the old notes.” “I’ve not heard about such, and at the same time I’ve not seen it.”