Banks dispense old naira notes after CBN’s directive

After the Central bank of Nigeria(CBN) gave a directive about old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes as legal tender, commercial banks have started the issuance of the notes, BusinessDay has learned.

“At GTCO Obalende, the bank’s ATMs dispensed ten thousand naira old notes for the bank customers while others who don’t have an account are given N1000 naira notes,” Damilola, a Zenith Bank customer said.

Marydread @MaryAkinola tweeted on Tuesday, “I don’t think everything is going back to “normal” anytime soon cos queue at Gtbank this morning is reaching 510 in number and they are only giving 4k old notes via the counter. No ATM [is] dispensing! I think this is more than a naira redesign! Why can’t they pay more than 4k?”

“At an ATM queue this morning and the conversations here are just wild. From stories of banks rejecting old notes to Nigerians leaving the queue once they find out it’s old notes being dispensed, to someone saying they are yet to hear from Buhari,” Abimbolaabayomi_ir

@DoiwithAIRA said in a tweet.

Before the CBN’s directive, Chigozirim, a bank customer said “My mum went to withdraw from Fidelity Bank in my area, beside Grandmate road, Ago palace way, Okota branch, and they were not giving cash. They stated that old notes were given to customers, but the customers were not accepting them. So as of yesterday, they gave no cash.”

Ten days after the Supreme Court judgment to mandate the use of old N1000 and N500 notes as legal tender till December 31, 2023, Isa AbdulMumin, the acting director, of Corporate Communications said Deposit Money Banks operating in Nigeria have been directed to comply with the Supreme Court judgment of March 3, 2023.

He added that 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.

On Tuesday morning around 10 am, Damilola said “People are already queued up at the UBA atm stand at Obalende, but the machines are not dispensing. However, people have confirmed that UBA banks are giving old notes over the counter.

“ATMs are showing the customer’s error messages – temporarily unable to dispense cash, Issue or switch inoperative.”

At a Polaris Bank ATM, the terminal flashed “temporarily unable to dispense message,” she said.

A twitter user, Chisom @GodsgiftChisom said in a tweet “My mom’s friend was paid her salary and she went to the atm to withdraw, but it gave her old notes. No one has agreed to take it, and even the bank has refused to collect it back. Please it’s better you use POS for now, don’t use ATM until this has been resolved.”