•CBN bound to obey S’Court order –Falana •Many bank branches remain shut as queues at ATMs, PoS charges rise
By Chinwendu Obienyi
Despite the Supreme Court, Nigerians continued their countdown on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) February 10 deadline for the expiration of the old naira notes as legal tender. in the country.
The CBN had announced that its Naira redesign policy in October 2022, was aimed at addressing vote buying and insecurity.
But since the announcement that the new notes would start circulating from December 15, 2022, Nigerians and businesses have been struggling to exchange the old notes for new ones.
The development has since triggered a cash crisis across the country with many banks failing to dispense the new notes across the counter and at their ATM points.
However, days after the governments of Kaduna, Zamfara and Kogi state dragged the CBN to court over the naira redesign policy, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, suspended the move by the CBN to end the use of the new notes as legal tender by February 10, 2023.
Meanwhile 24 hours after the S’ Court judgement, a look at the apex bank’s website showed that it is still running its countdown clock to the deadline.
“Current series of N200, N500 and N1000 notes remain legal until the deadline 10th February 2023,” a notice on the website read.
In the notice, the bank also advised Nigerians to deposit their old notes at designated financial touchpoints. Meanwhile, following the Supreme Court judgement on Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele met at the State House, Abuja.
But the details of the meeting are yet to be revealed. Reacting to the development, the interim Chairman of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana, in his latest communique revealed why the CBN must comply with the Supreme Court order in respect of the currency swap crisis.
In his statement on Thursday, Falana said his speaking up became imperative because there are reports suggesting that the CBN has decided that it will not follow the injunctions of the apex court. According to the Senior Advocate, such a move by the CBN will be nothing but a contemptuous disregard for the rule of law.
Meanwhile, investigations revealed that some of the banks’ branches operated yesterday while otherremained shut. When Daily Sun went round some bank branches around Oshodi, Isolo and Allen-Avenue in Lagos, after shutting their bank doors to customers for about two hours, N5000 was still being dispensed to customers over the counter while long queues were seen close to the banks’ ATMs.
Customers who spoke to Daily Sun, noted that they still remain confused as to whether the Feb 10 deadline still stands despite the S’Court judgement. According to them, the fact that the CBN has collected 80 per cent of the old notes and with 20 per cent outside the banking system coupled with the scarcity of the new notes, this means that the scarcity is bound to continue.
Chukwuma Ngozi, an electronic dealer, said, “I am a bit confused about this judgement because this does not mean anything. I had expected the bank to give me N20,000 today after the judgement but I still got N5,000 from the counter”.
Also, charges from Point of Sales (PoS) operators for cash withdrawals still continued to rise as despite the CBN’s warning to sanction PoS operators or mobile money agents, N2,000 was still being collected for the withdrawal of N10,000 while N800 was charged to withdraw N5000.