The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sokoto State branch on Tuesday met with traders and leaders of business communities in Sokoto state over the rejection of old naira notes by their members from customers in the state.
Punch Newspaper reports that many business owners, especially in the state metropolis have been rejecting old notes with some of them closing their business premises, a situation that was causing untold hardship among the residents of the state.
Our reporter also gathered that commercial motorcyclists and some filling stations also reject the notes.
Briefing newsmen on the meeting, the branch comptroller, Dahiru Usman said it was called to allay the fears of the traders.
“We discovered that many traders have been rejecting our legal tender even before the January, 31 deadlines and this is causing hardship among the residents of the state.
“We invited their leaders and they told us their reason for doing so but we assured them there is no need for that as we are working to ensure no businessman loses his money because of this policy.
“We are meeting with banks’ managers today, before closing from the office.
“We will direct them to dedicate more hands and time to business communities because they deposit a huge sum of money
“With this, we are confident of moping up all the old naira notes on or even before the deadline,” he said
Usman added that there are enough redesigned Naira notes for dispensing in the state.
Speaking earlier in his remarks, the Secretary General of the Sokoto Marketers Association, Alhaji Abubakar Altine, hinged their decision to reject old naira notes on the difficulty in depositing money in their banks’ accounts due to the influx of depositors who wanted to meet up with the CBN deadline.
He however said his members now have a rest of mind following their meeting with the government, ” We will tell our members to continue collecting old naira notes without any fear,” he said