As Nigerians approach Christmas, some portions of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, are experiencing Naira scarcity.
On Thursday, seven commercial banks in Abuja’s AYA neighborhood refused to disburse cash.
Platinum Times correspondent states that he was unable to withdraw money from these ATMs on Thursday evening, adding that this has been the case for almost a week.
Our correspondent, on the other hand, witnessed a long line of POS operators in front of those banks, ready to do business.
One of the POS operators, Samuel, expressed disappointment that the ATMs were not distributing cash as expected.
He pointed out that cash was only available at particular times of day.
“Since we entered December these ATMs have not been dispensing as much.
“There is naira scarcity and most likely it may be because we are approaching December, but only CBN can explain this new scarcity,” he said.
This is coming amid the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, directive that both the old and the redesigned Naira notes remain legal tender in Nigeria.
The Supreme Court also in its judgment granted the prayers of the federal government to lift the December 31 extension deadline for the usage of N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
While responding to the judgement, the CBN had this to say: “To avoid doubt, the Supreme Court ordered that the old versions of N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes, alongside the redesigned versions, shall continue to be legal tender.
“Accordingly, in line with Section 20(5) of the CBN Act 2007, all banknotes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria will remain legal tender indefinitely.”