Naira Scarcity: Despite Supreme Court ruling, CBN rolls out tattered N50 notes, see photos

• Nigerians have started lamenting as ATMs now dispencing tattered N50 notes amid naira scarcity in the country
• Despite the supreme court ruling that the CBN should allow the old naira notes to stay beyond Friday, February 10 set deadline as an expiring date, naira scarcity continues
• Some Nigerians could not figure out why the machines would print tattered N50 notes, decried the policy and wonder why the government was treating its people this way

FCT, Abuja - Some customers of Nigerian commercial banks have lamented the release of tattered N50 notes to banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

Following the scarcity of the redesigned Naira notes, the CBN on Wednesday released bundles of N50 notes to banks who in turn dispensed same to customers. The customers, however, returned some very tattered notes back to the counters.

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Legit.ng observed that the development resulted in too many customers looking for space in the banking halls.

Aftermath of Supreme Court ruling

This development is coming after a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, stopping the CBN from going ahead with its deadline of phasing out completely the old Naira notes.

The CBN had earlier fixed February 10th as the deadline for the old Naira notes to be completely phased out. It means that after the deadline, the old N200, N500, and N1000 will stop being legal tenders.

But three northern states, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, had, in a motion ex-parte filed on February 3rd, prayed the apex court to stop the CBN's naira redesign policy.

Consequently, a 7-man panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice John Okoro, unanimously granted an interim injunction stopping the FG, CBN, commercial banks etc, from working with the February 10 deadline.

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Customers lament tattered notes

But customers who were stunned by the development of the release of the tattered Naira notes lamented the situation and rejected some of the notes.

Some of the customers initially believed that some politicians deposited the money recently, saying Nigerians are very wicked. But a bank staff clarified that the monies were distributed by the CBN.

The officer said:

" Look at the date stamp on the money. These notes have been lying wasted since 2018. We are in 2023 and the CBN is just releasing them.

"I believe the problem is from the CBN. How do they expect us to pay and sort this money? People are rejecting them, even me, as a banker, I can't accept this money. They are terrible."

A customer, Mr James Adahi said:

" We did not bargain for this. I'm a customer of this bank. I have been here since morning and when it is my turn to be paid, they are now counting N50 notes for me. How many of these notes will be useful for me? Sad!"

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Almost all the banks visited in Abuja by Legit.ng were paying out the tattered N50 notes to customers.

The effort to speak with the CBN Director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobu failed as all calls went unanswered.

Tinubu commends APC governors over supreme court ruling on CBN naira redesign policy

Legit.ng earlier reported that the APC presidential flagbearer, Bola Tinubu, has commended the supreme court ruling that stopped the federal government from banning the legal tending of old naira notes.

Tinubu also hailed the governors of the 36 states, particularly the APC governors, for standing by the people to stop them from suffering.

The governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states have dragged the federal government and the CBN before the court over the new naira redesign policy.

Source: Legit.ng