Nigerians are facing difficulty accessing the new naira notes as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across the country remain empty, even as the deadline given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the old naira notes to cease to be legal tender nears.
This is coming on the heels of the CBN’s reaffirmation that the January 31 deadline will not be extended. The central bank had issued ATM-only withdrawal ultimatum to the banks, among other measures, as a way of ensuring adequate circulation of the new naira notes across the country.
However, the ultimatum has failed to curtail the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes. Some bankers said there is not enough supply of the new N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes, leaving them with to either issue the old naira notes or leave the ATMs empty. With the latter becoming their choice, the circulation of the new naira notes has been significantly undermined.
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This is despite the CBN’s claim that there is enough of the redesigned naira notes to go round, threatening to sanction any bank caught hoarding the new notes.
”The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
”This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction,” Musa Jimoh, Director of the Payment System Management Department of the CBN, said in Jos.
Against the backdrop of the new naira notes scarcity, there is a growing belief that the CBN is deliberately creating artificial scarcity as a mechanism to tame Nigeria’s wild inflation.
The CBN governor Godwin Emefiele had decried the amount of naira in circulation in the country. He said after the Monetary Policy Committee held on Tuesday, where interest rate was once again reviewed upward to 17.5%, that some persons have been hoarding the naira, causing the circulation to rise from N1.4 trillion to N3.2 trillion in seven years.
The scarcity of the new naira notes despite assurances by the apex bank that there is enough to satisfy the need, is thus seen as part of efforts to limit the amount of cash in circulation while mopping up the excess old naira notes already in circulation.
However, the situation is creating a fresh facet of hardship that is poised to add further misery to the lives of the Nigerian public.
“It is a fact that you can do the right thing in the wrong way. How else do you explain the stubbornness of the CBN Governor. If this arbitrary deadline is not extended; there will be so much hardship and pain the people will revolt. Why is it so hard to apply common sense,” Dr Charles Omole, a security expert lamented.
With Nigeria’s push for a cashless economy still in cradle, Nigerians rely mostly on cash transactions. This backdrop means that the informal sector will likely see the impact of the redesigned naira notes doubled. Commuters are lamenting that lack of cash in ATMs is keeping them stranded. In addition, people who have deposited their old naira notes don’t have cash to buy the things they need.
It is not clear who, between the banks and the CBN, is telling the truth about the scarcity of the new naira notes. But the central bank is yet to sanction any bank for not making the new naira notes available in ATMs, a development many have pointed at as a sign of culpability.