On the very last day of this month, January 31, 2023, old naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 shall cease to be legal tenders in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned that there will be no extension of the deadline for the use of the old notes.
Following up on this, the CBN commenced an aggressive nationwide sensitization to update the people on the need to pay in all old notes into their bank accounts to help them beat the deadline.
Meanwhile, the CBN has said that old notes which are not paid into the banks before January 31, 2023, will become invalid. It said that the bank has taken steps to ensure that everyone is able to meet the deadline, by ensuring that firstly, no charges are imposed on customers who want to pay any amount of money into the bank, and that banks will open even on Saturdays to ensure that no one missed the opportunity of paying their old notes into the bank.
Last week, officials of CBN took time to move round many markets in Anambra State to sensitise the people both on the deadline, the security features of the notes, the quality and the dangers of not accepting the notes as legal tenders.
Early in January, there have been incidents of people rejecting the notes, maybe as a result of the ignorance of the changes, while some said the rejection was about the inferior nature of the notes, which they said was susceptible to being counterfeited.
There were incidents of many consumers having problems with traders, but the recent sensitization tour of markets in Anambra, and the complaints received, showed that the issue is no longer about the authenticity of the notes, but the availability. This may be because the CBN had insisted that there will be no grace period after January 31, and that Nigerians have no option other than accepting the new notes.
During the CBN sensitization exercise, which happened in major markets in Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha, reactions of traders who were being sensitised about the new notes was monitored. Though a few traders still complained about the inferiority of the notes, the major complaints were about the availability and the high cost of getting the notes from black market retailers.
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