By Habeeb Olokooba
It was on a Wednesday morning. Imran, a 100-level student of Political Science rushed to Guarantee Trust Bank to withdraw some money at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto’s branch.
The undergraduate who doubles as a Point of Sale(POS) attendant, needed to attend to his customers. However, Imran was taken aback when he realised that the Automated Teller Machine started vomiting the old naira notes together with some few new notes.
“When I made a Fifty thousand naira withdrawal, I was surprised to see that the new notes were coming out with the old ones,he said. They arrange the money in a zigzag manner.”
Imran was left with no other choice than to take the money from the GTBANK.
“Now, my customers are not willing to collect the old naira notes from me because: shop and business owners at the school mini market have started rejecting it,” he lamenTed.
GTBank branch at Usmanu Danfodiyo University,Sokoto happens to be among the banks that are violating the clear warning of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN).
According to a a statement released by the CBN on 7th January, the apex bank directed banks to upload their Automated Teller Machines with only the newly redesigned notes to ensure that the currency circulates across the nation ahead of the 31st January deadline, when the old notes will cease to be a legal tender.
“The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the Over-the-Counter payment of the new N200, N500 and N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals, the statement reads.
“This is effective immediately please.”
Recall that the CBN has redesigned N200, N500 and N,1000 notes, however, despite the deadline close at hand, some banks are still dispensing the old naira notes.
Just like Imran, Shereefdeen Ahmad is another student at UDUS whose bank —First Bank—is still dispensing the old naira notes even at the twilight of the deadline.
“I was very surprised when I realised that the ATM is still dispensing the old currency, despite the fact that the deadline for the rejection of the currency is almost here,” Shereefdeen said.
“It is high time for them to correct this and start releasing the new currency to meet up the demand of the deadline.”
Though Shereefdeen still believes part of the problem is not unconnected to the lack of full monitoring of the policy.
“I believe the Central Bank has not done enough in implementing the policy, and that’s why many of the banks are still dispensing the old currency. They should have a monitoring system to ensure the banks are dispensing new currency to meet up the demand of the deadline.”
First Bank, GTBank Keep Mute
All attempts to speak with the management of both First Bank and GTBANK proved abortive.
When several messages and phone calls were placed to the customer care of the two banks, they promised to reply but as of the time of filing this report, no response was received from them.