Residents of Osogbo, Osun State capital are groaning in despair as some commercial banks in the states no longer accept old naira notes.
Some residents who also attempted to pay their electricity bills using the old notes were disappointed as the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Osogbo office rejected the currency.
Even market women, hawkers, and some filling stations rejected the old naira notes.
The scarcity of the redesigned naira notes across the country has been biting hard on the residents, who lamented their inability to buy what they wanted.
Our correspondent gathered that Polaris, Keystone and First banks rejected old naira notes at their deposit sections.
Zenith Bank was said to have initially rejected the old notes but later accepted them after much pressure.
As a result of this development, more people were seen gathered at the banks’ gates challenging the refusal of the old notes despite the Supreme Court ruling on the matter.
“The new notes are yet to circulate, what do you want us to do? How do they want us to survive,” one of the bank’s customers, who spoke with BusinessDay said.
Read also: Retaining old naira notes will encourage vote-buying – CBN
“With the Supreme Court ruling, why should any bank reject the old notes? We get disappointed by the day with the happenings of the country. Can’t the federal government see that the masses are suffering from their selfish policies?”
One of the bank officials who addressed the customers at the gate said the bank is yet to receive a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to accept the old notes, hence the rejection.
The Supreme Court had ordered the apex bank not to end the use of old naira notes on February 10, 2023,recent as earlier declared by the CBN.
The court gave the order to temporarily cancel the CBN’s deadline to end the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes.
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