There has been no tangible reprieve as to distress plaguing Nigerians, springing from the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria with regard to the naira redesign, swap and cash withdrawal limits.
Weeks after CBN announced its return of the old naira notes into circulation long queues at commercial banks, customers’ discomfort, arising from inability to gain access to their monies in banks with frustrating online banking still reign supreme.
The cash crunch, as per the apex bank, is the consequence of Nigerians hoarding the new notes.
Quoting an unnamed, highly placed CBN insider, The Nation wrote; “People, not only politicians but ordinary Nigerians, are hoarding the new notes because of uncertainties.
“You know December will soon come. That is when all the old notes will cease to be legal tender. So people are stocking the new notes to mitigate uncertainties over the old or new naira notes.
“CBN released N70 billion to the banks to distribute to their various branches every day, and they are largely old notes by way of strategy because of the phenomenon I spoke to you about earlier.
“When people see the new notes they just take them out of the system and don’t bring them back.
“That is the reason the CBN is dishing out the old notes so that they become available and citizens can make transactions very easily. That is the current position.
“So, it’s not that the CBN is not releasing money at all.”
