There are serious crises imminent across the country over scarcity of new naira notes if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefile doesn’t rescind his stance on the deadline of the old stock of currencies in circulation in the country.
The CBN governor has been on the news over these issues and the subject has been a long controversial source of worries to most Nigerian families especially those in the rural areas and the POS operators.
In Rivers state, the scarcity of the new naira note has generated a lot of uproar with some POS attendant being accused of collaborating with some commercial banks to hoard the flow of the new cash.
However, the subject changed when a popular supermarket in Port Harcourt (name withheld) got a different share of the anger of their prospective customers, as a young lady customer was spotted struggling with some private security guard over the issue of paying with the old naira note.
But, according to some eyewitnesses, trouble started when a cashier gave her balance with an old naira, while she refused to take that of her customer’s, adding that she refused their proposal insisting that the deadline of the ban is just about a few days ahead.
The popular supermarket (Name withheld) stopped receiving the old naira note, but was giving out the old note after transacting or sales to their customers, a situation that sparked anger amongst their customers who blocked and refused to accept the old note either from the supermarket.
Moreso, it took the intervention of some security operative to calm the situation, but, the issue is now different as our roving reporters try to investigate the situation across Rivers state, especially in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government areas.
Meanwhile, the Acting Vice Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University (IAU) Prof.Okay Onuchuku, has defended the action of the Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N) governor Godwin Emefile, saying the new cash policy is to mob up excess cash flow in the system, but said, it must be done with good intention to accommodate those at the rural level.
He advised that in a much as the policy of CBN is good, enough enlightenment and advocacy should be carryout for the public and people at the rural level to fall in line with the policy, adding that whatever action carried out by the CBN’s governor is peculiar because, CBN is supposed to be autonomous of its own.
Although, a cheering news came just on Sunday, when it was learnt the CBN governor has extended the date.