Warri Traders Groan over Unavailability Of New Naira Notes

By Ifeanyi Onyejeke

Many Nigerians have continued to express worry over their inability to carry out transactions due to unavailability of the new Naira notes.

These views were from Traders of various wares in Igbudu Market Warri, Delta State few days to the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN’s January 31, 2023 deadline for expiration of the Old Naira notes.

The Traders including Mr Pedro Dodo, Mrs Patience Ufuoma and Ezekiel Wegba complained that the commercial banks around them were still issuing the old Naira notes and urged the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN to sanction such banks to serve as deterrent to others.

They noted that customers still bring the old Naira notes to them and revealed that their refusal to receive the old 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes have indirectly made them lose sales daily.

On why they are not keying into the cashless policy of the Nigeria’s Apex Bank which allows for customers to do business through transfer, the Igbudu Market Warri traders argued that many traders in the market deal on petty trades which are less than ten thousand Naira per capital while others say they do not have the intellectual capacity to carryout online transactions.

Speaking on some of the benefits of the CBN Policy on Naira redesign and cash withdrawal policy an official of Central Bank of Nigeria CBN Mr Sunny Daibo said the CBN intends to provide security to Nigerians by putting a stop to possession of bulk cash amount.

According to Mr Daibo the amount used to print the Naira notes are quite expensive so the CBN wants Nigerians to pay their monies into their account to promote a cashless economy which he said would help reduce criminality as well as check mate activities of kidnappers.

Corroborating Mr Daibo’s views a Public Analyst Pastor Edewor Egedegbe asked Nigerians to be willing to adapt to every new policy expressing his conviction that the new CBN policy has a lot of positive benefits.