Traditional rulers across Nigerian states have been called upon to help in enlightening their subjects on the new naira notes and the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria in their respective communities.
Kofo Salam-Alada, the Director of Legal Services and Legal Adviser, of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), made the appeal on Saturday when he led other CBN officials on an advocacy visit to the Deji of Akure, Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi and Chairman of the Ondo State Council of Obas, in his palace.
The CBN Director, who also took the advocacy visit to the palaces of Olukare of Ikare and Owa-Ale of Ikare-Akoko, in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo state, however, noted that the old banknotes of N1000, N500 and N200 which were still being used side by side with the new notes would be phased out completely on January 31, 2023.
According to him, the call to the traditional rulers across the states was a move to enforce the directive by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who had on October 26, 2022 announced the redesign of the three bank notes and existing currencies that will remain legal tender and circulate together until January 31, 2023.
Read also: Banks discontinue payment of old naira notes across the counter
Salam-Alada, who emphasised that the redesigned currency notes can never be counterfeited, however, encouraged the public to explore other payment channels, such as eNaira, POS, electronic transfer, USSD, internet banking, and mobile money operators and agents, for their economic activities.
Speaking at the palaces of Olukare and Owa-Ale of Ikare-Akoko, the CBN Director said, “Kabiyesi, you will recall that during your sojourn as student, monarch and family person abroad, it has always been a cashless economy. So, we can’t preach to the converted, we can only leverage on the status for you through yours chiefs and Olukare in council to preach to our people to accept the message. We are in the winning days of the old notes which will cease to become legal tender on the 31st of January. However, banks are still accepting the old notes.
“They should take it to the bank or find a way to send it via the Point of Sale machines (POS) or any other electronic channels that they can use to carry out their banking services.”
Responding, the Deji of Akure, Aladelusi, Olukare and Owa-Ale of Ikare-Akoko, Akadri Momoh and Adeleke Adegbite, described the CBN move as a round peg in a round hole, noting that they will summons their chiefs and enlighten the subjects to prevent them from losing their money.
The monarchs, however, urged the apex bank to ensure the availability of the new notes and promised to inform their people about the policy.
Our correspondent reports that residents across the 18 local government areas of Ondo state, especially traders, PoS operators have lamented the scarcity of the redesigned notes as the majority of the commercial banks were still dispensing only the old notes at their Automated Teller Machines.
A PoS operator, Charles Oluwaferanmi, who spoke with our Correspondent, however, said, non availability of the notes made most of the customers to reject the old notes from him for transaction.
“Besides, we do not see enough N200, and N500 notes while the N1000 is more in circulation than others notes and we always takes the old notes to the banks in order to change it to the new one,” Charles said.
Speaking under the conditions of anonymity, a staff of the FirstBank Plc in Akure, revealed that few new notes were made available for them to load in the ATM’s, lamenting the unavailability of the new Naira notes to transact with their customers.
