On December 15, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially released the new naira banknotes to the Nigerian public. And like the superstars these new notes are, Nigerians feverishly looked forward to receiving them from the ATMs and bank counters. But just like waiting for a superstar Nigerian artiste at a Detty December concert to perform on time, Nigerians ended up disappointed.
Some of the people lucky enough to get these new notes couldn’t get more than ₦2000 at a time. So why exactly are these notes playing hide and seek with us?
Banks don’t have enough of them
CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, wants to create a cashless economy by encouraging electronic payments, so the bank didn’t print these new notes in large quantities.
As a result, the new notes were rationed between banks, and some are even still waiting to get their quota.
Some ATMs can’t recognise the new notes
You might still get old notes from ATMs because many of them haven’t been reconfigured to recognise the new naira notes. Until this is done, the circulation will remain slow.
Some people want nothing to do with the new banknotes
Some people are scared of change, and we can’t blame them because Buhari promised us change yet look where we are. One of the easiest ways for money to circulate is through everyday transactions. But Nigeria’s informal sector is yet to fully embrace the new notes and some even rejected them on the day they launched.
Meffy has already threatened warned us that the old notes will become outdated from January 31, 2023, but the government needs to solve the problem of circulation first.
