Despite CBN’s directive, Bank ATMs  dispense old notes  —  Investigation 

…Politicians demand too high, making new notes scarce — Source

By Seun Ibiyemi, Mathew Dennis (Abuja), Ismail Azeez (Osogbo) and Akintunde Jacob (Akure)

Despite directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mandating commercial banks to stop putting old naira notes in their automated teller machines (ATMs), investigation by Nigerian NewsDirect across the country has revealed that some commercial banks are yet to follow the directive by loading old Naira notes in their ATMs.

Also investigation revealed that some banks sell new Naira notes to money exchangers.

Meanwhile, commercial banks have complained that the new Naira notes are not enough to meet customers’ demands, but the apex bank insists that the new notes are enough to go round.

The deadline set by the CBN for phasing the old notes out of circulation is January 31st, 2023.

In a check by our correspondent to Wuse area, Abuja at the weekend, it was discovered that most banks still have bulk of the old Naira notes stocked in their machines.

Speaking to our reporter,  a customer of a Tier I bank, Magnius Paul, who just withdrew cash expressed disappointment after the ATM dispensed the old naira notes to him.

He said, “I came here to withdraw money to buy some ingredients at Wuse market but to my surprise, the N20,000 I withdrew all came out in old notes.”

According to him, “The CBN should penalise commercial banks hoarding the new currencies looking to give them to Politicians at odd hours.”

Another customer, Suleiman Abdullahi who used another  said the ATM of another Tier 1 bank, at same Wuse Zone 3 said it dispensed both the new and old Naira notes.

He tasked the Apex bank to print more of the new currency and have a deliberate policy to ensure circulation in various banks located in the markets.

According to him, “Traders can be used as the fastest channel of circulating the currency as you can see our people go as far as Uyo to buy seafoods and return the following day to Abuja.

“My neighbour sells seafoods and every Saturday she travels to Oron in Akwa-Ibom State to buy on Sunday and returns the following day. So, if she has the new currency it will go down to the local traders selling these crashfish, crag, fish, etc.”

A banker who craved anonymity while speaking to our reporter said, “You can  only get the new currencies in clubs, bars, gardens, hotels and events where politicians and celebrities are there because they demand for the new currencies in bulk which makes it easy to cash out for them with interest.”

Also findings in Akure, the Ondo state capital, show that some banks have not been complying, but were still loading old Naira notes on the machine.

Residents have been receiving new Naira notes from the ATM only in few banks.

Our Correspondent, who went around some of these banks in Akure city, could see that new Naira notes had been dispensing as some residents even condemned the action of the CBN to change the colour of the N200, N500 and N1000 notes.

According to them, the old Naira notes were still very okay, while some people commended the Federal Government and CBN for changing the colour of the money.

Also, a visit to Sango Otta, the economic hub of Ogun State and the State Capital, Abeokuta, revealed that ATMs were yet to dispense new Naira notes.

Speaking to Nigerian NewsDirect Daily newspaper, a POS operator, Adekumola Gbenga said that only money exchangers have access to new Naira notes.

He said despite the directives they are yet to have access to new Naira notes because banks sell to money exchangers.

He added that commercial banks are frustrating CBN’s order and the apex bank needs to sanction erring banks.

Majority of the commercial banks in Osun State complied strictly to the policy of the apex bank as they loaded their ATMs with new Naira notes.

Our correspondent, who went round the town over the weekend, observed that the new N500 and N1,000 notes were loaded in ATMs.

Few banks in Osogbo, the State capital were yet to load new Naira notes in their ATM machines since the last dispense of the old Naira notes on Friday.

However, the CBN has threatened to sanction commercial banks if they fail to  ensure that the redesigned Naira notes are available for Nigerians at all times.

Recall that the apex bank said there are enough of the new Naira notes to meet the demand of the public. It also vowed to monitor commercial banks to ensure that they comply with the directive.

CBN Director of Currency Operations, Mr Ahmed Umar, made this known in Abuja at the training session for State directors of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on the redesign of currency notes policy.

Umar said that the CBN’s directive was to implement the January 31 deadline for the withdrawal of old Naira notes in circulation.

“We want to use this training session to pass the message that the CBN has enough currency notes to go around the general public.

“We, CBN management, have mandated banks to stop putting old notes in their ATMs. They should only put the new notes.

“And there is the serialisation of the policy that they can put either N500, N1,000 or N200 notes whichever the denomination they have, or a combination of any of those notes; they should just put a new note in their machines.

“We are going to monitor to ensure that the banks comply and if they don’t, we have a penalty for non-compliance,” the CBN director said.

According to Umar, in many countries of the world, it takes a few years to change a currency note design.

“In our case what we had was over 20 years of having the same design of Naira notes. Over that period, what it did to us was to create an avenue for some people to master the art of counterfeiting the note.

“In our case, what we have is a minimum of 17 years or more for us to redesign our currency. If you notice the N1,000 note that was introduced in 2005, it took 17 years for us to redesign it. N500 and N200 notes were also redesigned after 21 years and 22 years respectively.

“So, if the Naira notes stay too long in the system, there is a tendency that people who counterfeit make a lot of efforts to produce the same notes. That is why there is a need to change our notes regularly,

“It is simple logic, the effort you put into counterfeit N1,000 is the same effort you put into counterfeit N5. So, why would they waste their energy doing small notes; they always target the higher notes, particularly N1000, because of the intrinsic values attached to them,” he said.