Barely four days to the expiration of the old naira notes deadline, many Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in major parts of Lagos do not dispense either the old notes or the new naira notes, leaving customers stranded.
The situation is further compounded by the fact that traders are also rejecting the old notes, asking consumers to pay with new notes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has fixed Jan. 31 as the deadline for the use of the old naira notes.
The new naira notes comprising N200, N500 and N1,000 became a legal tender on Dec. 15, 2022 after they were unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nov. 23, 2022 in Abuja.
Some of the ATMs monitored in Ikotun, Ejigbo, Egbeda, Surulere and Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos were not dispensing either the old or new naira notes.
Some of the banks in Surulere, Oyingbo, Ojota areas still dispensing old notes witnessed rejection with the customers depositing back the money.
Mr Michael Adejumobi, a software engineer, told NAN that the banks were frustrating people by not loading the new redesigned notes in the ATMs.
“The suffering in this country is too much; why is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) phasing out old notes without proper provision for people to have the new ones?
“Now, the banks are not even dispensing any of the notes, whether old or new.
“This is so frustrating. I have been running around banks looking for these new notes because the market women have also started rejecting the old notes,” he said.
At Ikotun market, traders also rejected the old notes leaving consumers in frustration.
The traders ask buyers to pay with new notes or use Point of Sale (PoS) machines to carry out payment which is done at a fee.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, during a sensitisation programme at Computer Village, Ikeja, said the new notes were lying in the apex bank’s vaults waiting for commercial banks to come and pick them.