Following the January 31 deadline issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, some Churches in Warri and its environs in Delta State during their Sunday services rejected offerings from their members, saying they will no longer accept the old naira notes still in circulation.
Most churches were not filled to capacity due to the hike in petrol price.
Members who do not have the new naira notes couldn’t give offerings either.
The rejection of the old naira notes may affect the account of the churches negatively.
This is coming as most churches announced to their members not to bring the old naira notes to church last Sunday in Warri.
Traders have already rejected the same old naira notes. This has reduced sales for them.
At the time of filing this report on Sunday, January 29, 2023, some crowds besieged some of the banks in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area as early as 6am.
The crowds struggled to deposit their old naira notes into their accounts.
Some of the banks that were overtaken by crowds includes, Union Bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, UBA, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, and First City Monument Bank, FCMB.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the deadline to February 10 to enable Nigerians swap their old naira notes.
Central Bank Extends Deadline For Swapping Old Naira Notes To February 10
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced a 10-day extension of the deadline for using old naira notes across Nigeria.
Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the apex bank, who spoke to journalists on Sunday, January 29, 2023. morning, said he had the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari for the extension.
The new deadline is now 10 February instead of the former 31 January deadline, he said.
Mr Emefiele spoke at the hometown of Buhari, a village called Daura, Katsina State, after a meeting with the president who is in his home state for official duties.
Mr Emefiele said Nigerians, who are yet to change their naira notes from the old to new ones, now have an opportunity to do so.
He said people must utilize the opportunity because the deadline will not be extended again.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, in October 2022, introduced redesigned 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes and gave a deadline of 31st January for the use of the old notes.
However, the new notes have been scarce, thus leading to calls for an extension.
Mr Emefiele did not elaborate on what the central bank was doing to resolve the scarcity of the new notes.
‘It’s illegal to reject old naira before January 31’ – CBN Cautions As Churches, Business Stop Collection
The Zamfara State branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said rejecting the old Naira notes before the deadline given by the apex bank is illegal and punishable by law.
The CBN, therefore, directed the police to arrest those who refuse to collect the old notes, pointing out that they are still legal tender until after the 31st January 2023 deadline.
Daily Post gathered that the apex bank has officially directed five of the commercial banks in the state to, as a matter of urgency, release new notes, threatening to sanction them if they failed to adhere to the directive.
Commenting on the scarcity of new notes during a sensitization workshop organised by the Association of Point of Sales, POS, operators in the state held on Thursday, January 26, 2023, at Maryam Hall in Gusau, the controller of CBN in the state, Mallam Buhari Abbas, gave reasons why the apex bank introduced the new notes.
Abbas, therefore, urged operators of POS to consider and assist in opening a new bank account for anyone who wants to deposit money and has no account.
“You should do selfless service by not allowing people to lose their money because they don’t have accounts, assist, help those who want to deposit their money”, he added.
According to him, the CBN had introduced new notes to reduce notes being in circulation in the hand of the public.
“More than 80% of Naira notes were in the hands of people, and the CBN has studied this and decided to introduce the policy to reduce the notes at hand, and the policy will harmonize the interest rate,” he said.
He noted that introducing the new CBN policy was to bring more development to the country, saying that the policy, if properly utilized, would boost businesses.
Source: Daily Post
