Since this year the average Nigerians and even the above-average Nigerians have been faced with unfathomable hardship due to the Naira redesign policy.
Of a truth, I can now testify that the Nigerian banking system is not technologically advanced to handle and accommodate a cashless (less cash) economy.
We have experienced pathological bank app failures, hanging and unfinished transactions that got people stranded in the la la land and the banks’ USSD has been shitty. I personally have lost count of how many transactions I initiated with the Bank app or the USSD that did not complete. More than 10 transactions I have done since January have been hanging in the air; money I transferred to someone since January is yet to deliver up to this day and the bank mobile complaint service is not working and they no longer pick up their calls for complaints, if you try going to banks to lay a physical complaint you will be met with a sea of people queueing up under the scorching sun for one banking problem or the other.
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Well, the purpose of the Naira redesign which caused the nationwide cash crunch is to reduce the volume of currency in circulation but I do not know if that purpose has been met and if it is a sustainable long-term purpose.
In obedience to the Supreme Court judgement which held that the old naira notes still subsist to be legal tenders until the 31st of December 2023, the CBN issued a directive to that effect but when customers are issued the old naira notes from the banks, the street vendors and the market sellers always refuse to accept it as a means of exchange for their wares; maybe they are not yet aware that the old notes are now back to being a legal tender until 31st of December 2023 or they are just scared of next the CBN could possibly do; even banks, when customers take old notes for deposit in the bank the banks always refuse to accept it.
A netizen narrated that yesterday he was issued old notes in the bank and when he went to the market to use them to purchase items the vendor refused to accept the old notes from him, with that frustration, he took the old notes back to the bank to redeposit it or to exchange it for new notes but the bank that issued him the old not like an hour ago refused to accept the old notes stating that it is a policy that they should only issue the old note to customers and not to accept it as deposits; if that is not confusion I wonder what it is.
This whole policy which ought to be a welcomed development was not properly managed by the CBN hence why it became a colossal failure. The banking system got overwhelmed, protests and riots erupted because of this, banks were destroyed with bank staff attacked, and people suffered a lot; this makes me wonder if there will ever be any good the redesign policy will achieve that can compensate for the damage it had already done to individuals and to the Nigerian economy.