Posted by Due to a lack of new Naira notes, some traders in Jigawa State have closed their doors.
This comes after the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said that the deadline to discontinue using old Naira notes in Nigeria remains January 31.
According to the kuryaloaded, the CBN has set the 31st of January 2023 as the deadline for discontinuing use of the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes after redesigning new ones on the 15th of December 2022.
In response to the CBN dateline, some traders in Dutse, the state capital, stated they have no choice but to close their shops till the new Naira notes are ready.
Malam Musa, a trader with a provision shop in Dutse Metropolitan, said he shuttered his shop due to the lack of new Naira notes.
“I used to make about N200,000 in sales every day, but I rarely received N10,000 new Naira notes, and if I collected the old ones, I found it impossible to exchange them in my bank because of the enormous queue,” he explained.
“To be on the safe side, I closed my business until the old notes became accessible.”
Bintu Samuel, an akara and pap seller on Gida Dubu in Dutse, said she would close her shop until the new naira notes were in circulation.
“Whoever bought my akara gave me old notes, and when I went to buy my goods, they rejected it, so I should close until the new naira notes are in circulation,” she explained.
kuryaloaded visited several banks and found clients in line as early as 7 a.m. on Wednesday to deposit old notes and others to withdraw fresh notes from ATMs.
Idris Musa, a customer at one of the commercial banks, said he waited more than 24 hours before depositing his old money.
He said that the delay is due to customers presenting old notes in large bags, and it takes a long time for the cashier to finish counting the money.
In addition, Malam Usman of Dutse stated he spent around 8 hours in the ATM line before withdrawing N20,000 in new naira notes.
They did, however, urge to the apex bank and commercial banks to take into account Nigerians’ suffering and find a solution to the challenges.
kuryaloaded has also learned that the scenario may worsen soon due to the state government’s payment of salary on January 25th, 2023.