ONICCIMA Commends CBN, Calls For Urgency Of Making New Naira available
By Julie Sylvia
The President of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (ONICCIMA) Chief Sir Kelvin Obieri had commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the leadership of Mr. Godwin Emefiele for extending the date for the deposit of old Naira notes under the New Naira policy till February 10, 2023.
“However, the biggest concern of the masses is the seeming unavailability of the New Naira notes which is affecting business activities negatively.
The long hours lost at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) points to withdraw the new notes is impacting heavily on businesses.
This was contained in a press release signed by the President of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Industry Chief Sir Kelvin Obieri.
“More worrying is that many banks claim to have received little or zero supply of the new naira notes, yet there are unverified reports of the New Naira being traded on the streets by persons who seem to have access to the new notes.
”The CBN should look into enforcing its oversight function on defaulting banks that have blatantly refused to disburse these funds to the general public but rather use the funds to make a quick profit by giving it out to those who are willing to pay an extra fee for the new currency.
“If CBN is lacking in enough staff to monitor these activities, the CBN should engage professional institutes like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), etc who have branches in all the states of the federation to assist in monitoring of banks’ disbursement of the new notes to the populace and send daily reports.
“While the CBN continues to make efforts to disburse the newly designed currency, this period equally provides a great opportunity for CBN to embark on massive sensitization of its cashless policy initiative and the use of alternative payment platforms recently licensed by the CBN. This would reduce the number of the unbanked in the informal sector as well as reduce the needless hours spent at ATM points.
“While the CBN has deployed 30,000 super agents nationwide through its Agents Naira Swap program to enhance its cash swap initiative in the hinterlands, rural areas, and regions under-served by banks in the country, there is a need to embark on sensitization through the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and other media outlets to ensure the locations of these super agents are known and easily accessible in the communities.
“It is also important that these super agents are not restricted to a particular region as this would create suspicion of bias which would further be disappointing if some persons in other regions are affected by the deadline without receiving commensurate help by the CBN.
“With the February 10, 2023 deadline and a seven-day grace period beginning from February 10 to February 17 allowing Nigerians to deposit their old naira notes, the CBN must do all within its purview to ensure that Nigerians have access to the new notes without the current inefficiency they have been experiencing from banks.
“In the recent statement by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele where he disclosed that since the commencement of the program, the apex bank had collected about N1.9 trillion, the Chamber does agree with the apex head that indeed the currency redesign project is an on-going success only if the numerous challenges faced by people trying to access the money is addressed and resolved speedily.
“he recent N100,000 weekly cash withdrawal limit recently suspended by the CBN may be revisited as it is clearly better than the current new naira notes unavailability faced by Nigerians.
