AHEAD of January 31, 2023, deadline for the phasing away of the old naira notes, some traders in Alimosho have already begun rejecting the old notes, insisting that customers must provide the new notes for business.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had insisted that old notes of #200, #500 and #1000 would cease to be in use from Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, maintained that the deadline remains sacrosanct, despite entreaties from different stakeholders that the apex bank should extend the deadline.
However, our correspondent who monitored traders at the Egbeda and Igando markets reports that a good number of them were still accepting old notes, but those who sell in retail were no longer accepting as according to them, the amounts received would be too meagre to go to the banks over the weekend for exchange.
A trader who resides in Obadore says she now adds more money if customers are not with the new notes. She said, "If you look at other shops, they have stopped accepting old notes, so everyone is now coming to my shop to buy things. I am increasing the money too, so I can use the top-up to pay transport to the bank to deposit it."
On her part, a woman who sells wholesale at Igando says she will still accept the old notes until Saturday night, as the banks would still be open for her to deposit them.
Some Nigerian commercial banks like the First Bank Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Bank, have said their branches across the country will operate on Saturday and Sunday to receive old naira notes ahead of the January 31 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In a public notice issued by the management of the banks on Friday, January 27, 2023, they said that the planned weekend operation was for receiving old naira notes only.
