It came as a relief to many Nigerians on Sunday when President Muhammadu Buhari decided to approve the extension of the dealing for the exchange of old currency to February 5, 2023.
It has been a harrowing experience for a lot of Nigerians to get new Naira notes despite spending many valuable time and hours in the banking halls without success.
Nigerians are complaining that it is extremely difficult to get hold of the new naira notes
By Friday, anxiety had already set in, as many became apprehensive that they may not be able to get the new notes while a good number of members of the public especially traders and even bus drivers have started rejecting the old notes from customers and commuters.
The situation looked hopeless at weekend given the number of people that thronged all the banking halls across the country, either looking for new note or what to deposit old money.
First Bank for instance had sent notices to its customers that its branches would be opening to customers on Saturday and Sunday in order to beat the deadline of January 31st
Grace Eseyin who operates Pos could not express her joy when the news hit her that the president has extended the deadline.
On Friday, I transverse across many banks in Anthony, Gbadgada, Ketu and Magodo looking for new Naira notes but without success. From 11 am to 5pm, I was moving from one bank to the other looking for elusive notes, she said.
The experience of Janet Abiye was not different from that of Grace.
In a place like Ilorin, the situation was really very bad, traders in the markets refused to collect the old notes thereby frustrating individuals that went to the market to shop for what they would need to cook food with.
Nigerians are complaining that it is extremely difficult to get hold of the new Naira notes.
There have been long queues at some banks as Nigerians have struggled to meet the original deadline of Tuesday.
People now have until 10 February to do the swap.
The redesign of the higher denomination naira notes has been heavily criticised with analysts saying six weeks was not enough time for Africa’s most-populous country to phase out the old currency.
It is happening a few weeks before the country goes to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections.
Local media has been reporting that there are not enough of the new notes in circulation, with people unable to withdraw them from banks.
The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is seen as a push to encourage Nigerians to embrace digital payments in a society where cash is king.
It hopes the exchange will bring some of the cash currently being hoarded by individuals and companies back into the banking system.
When the bank announced in October that the 1,000 ($2.18, £1.75), 500 and 200 naira notes were to be replaced, it said 80% of the notes in circulation were outside banks.
The CBN believes that with the redesigned currency it will have a better understanding of the money circulating in the economy so it can better manage inflation.
The bank governor said the new deadline of 10 February would allow more people in rural areas, where there are very few bank branches, to exchange the old notes.
He added that Nigerians would then have a further seven days to deposit old notes directly with the CBN.
