Jaiz Bank Dispenses New Naira Notes to Customers, Non-Customers
Nigeria’s premier non-interest lender financial services operator, Jaiz bank Plc, has raised the bar by dispensing new naira notes to customers and non-customers at the time its peers play a discriminating game on their respective automated teller machines (ATMs).
With the deadline for facing old notes approaching, there has been an apparent scarcity of new notes on ATMs across the cities.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will stop old N200, N500 and N1000 notes for payments in the country, and thus seize them to be legal tenders by January 31, 2023.
With the CBN decision to go ahead with the deadline set, Nigerians have continued to complain that there is a scarcity of new notes in circulation, making it difficult for them to exchange their currencies – even in some banks.
However, the CBN said it had distributed sufficient amounts to banks operating in the country. Based on channel checks, large banks appear to be finding it difficult to meet customers’ needs despite a reduction in daily withdrawal limits for individuals and corporates.
Now, banks have a device strategy to meet customers’ new notes demand by locking out third parties debit cards or non-customers from making withdrawals.
MarketForces Africa found out that over the weekend, most banks have blocked access to their machines for new naira notes collection after the apex bank threatened to slam fine on further dispensing of old notes.
The amount that each customer can get via ATMs has been limited to N20,000 per day. As a result, point of sales (PoS) operators increased their charges to N200 per N5000 to obtain new notes.
Some market women said they have stopped receiving old naira for payments for goods and services. Across the cities, local banks have stopped loading old notes to their ATMs, according to channels checked by MarketForces Africa.
However, all the Nigerian banks except a few like Jaiz Bank, and Lotus Bank did allow other banks’ ATM withdrawals on their machines.
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