Banks fight the scarcity of new naira ahead deadline

Bank Automated Teller Machines in Lagos, Abuja, and other regions of the country are still dispensing the old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes eight days before the Central Bank of Nigeria’s deadline of January 31 to stop making them legal money.

Despite assurances by the apex bank and depositing banks that Nigerians would start receiving the new naira notes via ATMs on various platforms, research as of Sunday revealed that many ATMs owned by the financial institutions were still dispensing the old notes.

Although some of the ATMs in Lagos, Abuja, Ogun, Osun, and Gombe, among other places, were found to be dispensing the new notes, it was found that banks were still stocking a sizable portion of their ATMs with the outdated notes, which the CBN plans to phase out in approximately a week.

Meanwhile, bank employees lamented the lack of new notes.

Under the condition of anonymity, the officials claimed that the development had made it difficult for them to completely adhere to the CBN directive regarding the requirement to load ATMs with new notes.

When questioned why Access Bank had not yet distributed enough new notes across its branch network, a source close to the bank responded that the bank had not yet received enough new notes to comply with the CBN’s instruction on the new note.

“The new currency is not enough for the bank to start dispensing; that is why they are still given the old currency.”

Another bank official claimed that the newly redesigned notes were scarce and added that no bank would intentionally disregard the CBN’s instruction.

He said, “The CBN has gone around our ATMs and found out that we are very compliant with their entire directive. No bank will hoard the new notes. CBN is going around and monitoring.  No bank would want to be caught flouting the rule. There is scarcity. If a bank’s ATM does not have the new notes, it means the bank does not have it.”

Also reacting to the scarcity, a top official of Zenith Bank said, “If the new currencies are exhausted from the ATMs, is it not better to fill the ATMs with old currencies so that people will have access to cash? It is still legal tender until the end of January. It is only when the branches have the new currencies that they can fill the ATMs will them.”

Banks were seen continuing to stock their ATMs with the outdated currency despite threats from the CBN to penalize disobedient banks.

Dr. Abdullahi Kure, a director at the CBN and the current managing director of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, has previously stated that the CBN would investigate institutions that were discovered to be storing or diverting new notes while issuing old currency.

He said that there was enough cash on hand at the CBN to satisfy bank requests.

Kure stated that if banks were discovered to be issuing old notes via ATMs, the CBN would examine its “record to determine the quantity of new notes provided to banks.” Such banks would receive sanctions if we found any violations.

He advised Nigerians to exchange any old notes they have for new ones through recognized outlets.