Respite appears to be on the way for millions of Nigerians that have been battling with scarcity of naira notes since late last year.
The scarcity arose from the change in the three highest naira denominations; N1,000, N500 and N200, which old versions the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed should be out of circulation by December 31, 2022.
With the expiration of the old notes, new notes were not available for the masses.
In the midst of this, the Supreme Court gave a judgement that the old notes remain legal tender until further notice after some governors took the apex bank to court.
But this was countered by President Muhammadu Buhari, who came on air to approve only old N200 note along with other smaller denominations of the old notes.
The three old notes that were being phased out were later approved by the CBN few days ago after a further hearing of the matter by the Supreme Court, and this was obeyed by the CBN after the presidency exonerated itself from the disregard for the ruling of the highest court in the land.
Yet, both the old and the notes are yet to be made available to Nigerians in the expected quantities.
Reliable sources in the CBN said that banks have been instructed to collect the old naira notes they deposited with it today, Wednesday and that before the end of the week, the country would be awash with naira notes.
The scarcity caused pains for many Nigerians, who had to depend on money transfer transactions, which have been erratic lately due to the high traffic that has overwhelmed the servers of the Nigerian banks.
Many Nigerians also spend huge amount of money to purchase cash from the few POS operators that manage to make the money available to them.
A source narrated how he had to pay N1,500 to collect N5,000 cash, while another source said he had to part with N1,000 to purchase N1,000 in his neighbourhood somewhere in Lagos State.
