As Nigerians groan under the scarcity of the resigned N200, N500 and N1, 000, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has blamed the commercial banks for racketeering the new notes.
Emefiele made the allegation yesterday in Abuja when he appeared before the house of representatives which summoned him over the confusion caused by the redesign of N200, N500 and N1, 000 naira notes and the attendant difficulty of swapping the old naira notes for the new ones.
He told the lawmakers that the commercial banks had breached the CBN’s guidelines with the way the new naira was being sprayed on people at parties.
However, he said the bank was working closely with relevant agencies of government to ensure full compliance with the CBN guidelines issued to the banks for the seamless distribution of the new banknotes.
“I addressed the bankers on Sunday and I expressed to them my disappointment and in fact, the disappointment of the president, the disappointment of leaders in the country with the way this has gone on because many of us have unfortunately seen the new naira instead of being used for the purpose it was meant, the new naira is being used in parties, in celebrations.
“Some of them (bank CEOs) said well, maybe it’s money from the ATMs and I said no, money from the ATMs are already broken. They are in leaflets but what we saw being stamped on people at parties were packages of the new naira notes which means they had breached certain aspects of the guidance note we gave to them.
“And when I met President Buhari, I told him that we have met with the EFCC, the ICPC and NFIU and that we are now going to bring EFCC, ICPC, NFIU to join us in monitoring the flow of this currency to our people,” he said.
Emefiele said he was delighted that the DSS had made some arrests stressing that “we are conducting this activity to the best of our ability.
Nevertheless, Nigerians have not have had it easy sourcing the new notes or the old ones even after the CBN had on Sunday shifted the deadline for swapping the old note for the new ones from January 31 to February 10, 2023.
NewsGazette which went round some places in Lagos yesterday reports that despite the extension of the deadline Nigerians have not got any respite as they went from one bank to another to withdraw money from the ATMs, but to no avail.
It was also found that banks attended only to customers who had the old naira notes to deposit while those who wanted to withdraw money over the counter were told there was no cash.
All the ATMs on Airport Road, Okota Road, Lawanson Road, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and some other places like Adeniran Ogunsanya, Ojuelegba, Masha, Yaba, etc were all shut down.
It was also learnt that ATMs in some other parts of Lagos were not dispensing cash thereby leaving the residents cashless for simple transactions like fare and buying sundry things in the markets.
Where some ATMs were loaded with cash, they were programmed to dispense only N2, 000.
The queues at such ATMs were long and many customers after waiting for hours went home disappointed as the cash was exhausted before it got to their turn.
It was also found that point of sale (POS) operators had no cash, even the old naira notes to give to customers.
However, those who had cash doubled the service charge.
A POS operator in Surulere said in an interview that the upward review of the charge was occasioned by the difficulties in getting cash from banks.
For N20000 withdrawal for instance, she charged N800.
Worst still, the few operators who had cash were dealing in the old naira notes.
At on POS shop on Ojuelegba Road, it was found that different charges were collected for the old and new naira notes.
Customers were to choose between the redesigned and old notes. While N300 service charge was collected for N5000 transaction, the old notes attracted N200 as CoT for N5000 transaction.
A POS operator who identified herself as Shade said in an interview that it was herculean sourcing cash from the banks.
She said where she could not collect money directly from the bank she ‘bought’ it from a third party who charged a fee.
“You go to a bank and fill a form requesting to withdraw N300000 for instance. The bank says it can give you N100000. Sometimes you spend almost a whole day queuing up to get the cash. The bank can also tell you there is no cash. In that case you have to source money from the ‘black market’ for a fee. And for me, I I have to mark up a little so that I can continue to remain in business.” she said.
Another operator also said it had been difficult to get money from the banks as available cash was being rationed.
“These days banks don’t give you all what you want. They give you what is available so that it would go round,” he said.
Meanwhile, the CBN has said that one of the reasons for the naira redesign was to bring in the N2.7 trillion currently held in people’s homes into the banking system.
“The general practice across the globe and that practice is that every five to eight years, the CBN is supposed to redesign or do some form of changes do its currency.
“The reason is because CBN has to be in the position from time to time to have control of money supply in the country. Unfortunately, we have not had the luxury of carrying out this important aspect of our mandate in the last almost 19 years to the extent in 2015, the currency in circulation was N1.4 trillion. “In October 2022, currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion. More than double in seven years. It’s very unfortunate that it more than doubled in eight years. Out of the N3.23 trillion, more than N2.7 trillion was outside the banking system. More than N2.7 trillion is held in people’s homes.
“What that does is that it makes our mandate of monetary policy very difficult. When we are not in control out of N2.3 trillion, what we see in the banking system is just about N500 billion. There is no how our law which you the lawmakers have made for us to carry out, our work can be effective and that is the reason.
“I thank the president that in 19 years, we have had an opportunity to carry out this important aspect of our mandate. We are grateful to him because he listened after we provided him the needed explanations about what we have been going through in the monetary policy.
“Now, the president graciously gave approval on October 6, 2022, and we had expected that around December 15, the currency circulation will begin, but we were lucky that we moved forward the circulation in November when the president launched the currency,” Emefiele said.
