The debilitating cash crunch that has hit the country since the start of the year is biting harder as the Federal Government and its agency, the Central Bank of Nigeria have refused to comply with the Supreme Court order which ruled that old N200, N500 and N1000 be allowed to circulate until December 31, 2023.
A seven-man panel of the apex court held that the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the CBN for the redesign and withdrawal of the old notes without consultation with the states, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the National Council of State and other stakeholders, was unconstitutional.
However, six days after the landmark judgement was delivered, the Federal Government and the CBN have kept mum leading to confusion across the country.
Iwitnesslive had reported that some banks including Guarantee Trust Bank, and First Bank had been dispensing old notes to their customers since Monday despite no directives from the CBN but in compliance with the judgement of the Supreme Court, many others were yet to do so as they were still waiting for fresh order from the regulatory body.
Our correspondent observed that as of Wednesday evening, some filling stations and business outlets in Lagos were rejecting the old N500 and N1000 notes.
Attendants at Enyo Filling Station along Meiran Road in Lagos were seen rejecting the old notes claiming their banks were not collecting the currency from them.
“We don’t collect the old naira notes from our customers because our banks are also rejecting them. We are aware of the Supreme Court judgement; we even collected these monies on the day of the judgement but when we took them to the bank they simply rejected saying they were yet to get approval from the CBN. So, we had no choice but to also reject them from our customers,” a manager with the filling station who gave his name as Kazeem told our correspondent.
Investigations conducted at Ile-epo market, Iyana Ipaja market and Agege market showed many of the traders were rejecting the old notes.
Many POS operators are still out of business because they could have access to both old and new naira, out correspondent also observed.
