In a last-minute move to improve the circulation of the new naira notes, the apex bank has intensified efforts by providing the new notes to banks for onward circulation among Nigerians, especially in rural areas.
However, sources familiar with details of the CBN operation told @goldmynetv on Saturday that the apex bank’s supply of the new notes has been grossly inadequate, making it difficult for commercial banks to meet customers’ demands.
A security source told this us that banks are receiving an average of N12 million in some parts of the country, an amount the source explained was grossly inadequate to meet operational demands.
“Cash needed for ATM operations alone in this place is about N25m, and that’s apart from other cash transactions within the bank,” the source said. “Bankers are scared to complain openly.”
Security agencies, particularly the State Security Service, have been monitoring the implementation of the new notes policy and have been questioning bank officials including those of the apex bank, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
The scarcity of the new notes was also confirmed to this newspaper by bank managers of commercial banks in Lagos and Abuja.
“The CBN has been lying to Nigerians. Even me, as a branch manager, I don’t have the new notes and customers keep calling me to help them get it,” a branch manager of a new generation bank in Lagos said.
The bank chief said his branch normally needs about N10 million to fill its ATMs for use by customers.
“But throughout last week, we only got a total of N2 million of the new note. That is why our ATMs have been idle with nothing to dispense because we have been ordered not to use the old notes,” the source added.
Another branch manager of another new-generation bank, in Abuja, expressed the same frustration.
“We are not getting enough cash. Our ATMs are not working as we have no money to load,”.
