Nigerian banks are still dispensing old notes to their customers using their Automatic Teller Machine 48 hours after redesigned new Naira notes begin circulation.
On Thursday, December 15, the newly designed denominations of N200, N500, and N1,000 officially went into circulation.
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, on October 26, 2022, announced that new Naira notes would be introduced to replace the current 200, 500, and 1,000 Naira notes.
The move Emefiele stated was, among others, to help mop up naira notes in circulation.
The CBN governor also encouraged banks to ensure they opened on Saturdays to allow customers return old naira notes before the January 31 deadline.
READ ALSO: New Naira notes go into circulation today
On Wednesday, November 23, 2022, President Buhari unveiled the new notes while CBN assured that commercial banks had already taken custody of the new notes and were only waiting circulation on the approved date.
With a considerable amount of time, it was expected that banks were ready to release the new notes.
However, a visit to some banks’ ATM machines along Ikotun, Igando, Egbeda, Ikeja, and Ago Palace Axis on Friday and early Saturday, December 2022, more than 24 hours after the circulation of the new notes, banks ATM were still dispensing old N1,000 and N500 notes to customers.
Many Nigerians had hoped to touch the new notes before the CBN’s cash withdrawal regulation, which limited ATM withdrawals to just N200 and lower denominations, came January 9, 2023.
A bank customer, who made withdrawals said that he was expecting to be paid with the new notes today but was disappointed when the ATM dispensed the old N1,000 note.
“It is a thing of disappointment that on getting to the bank to make a withdrawal, they were still paying with the old naira. I withdrew N50,000 and all are old notes. Look at it (showing it to this reporter). I wonder how these new notes will circulate around the country before January 31, next year.”
Another bank customer and a PoS operator, Aina Omosehin, said she withdrew N30,000, and that all were old notes.