Banks Begin Partial Payment of Old N500, N1000 Notes

Following the Supreme Court judgement, some commercial banks including Access Bank and GTB have started paying out old N500 and N1,000 notes to customers.

Bank customers in Abuja, Kano, Kwara and Abia States confirm the development. 

A staff of GTB, who spoke on condition of anonymity said “Yes, we paid out N500 and N1,000 to customers today (yesterday).”

Another source from GTB added that the bank received informal approval from the CBN before dispensing the old N500 and N1,000 notes to customers.

It would be recalled that on Friday, a seven-member panel of justices of the Supreme Court nullified the deadline set by the CBN for the old naira notes. The apex court ordered that the old notes of N500 and N1000 should remain legal tender till December 2023.

Ruling on a case brought before it by a number of state governors against the Federal Government, the apex court said the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) contravened the 1999 Constitution.

The judges also came down hard on President Muhammadu Buhari for floating an earlier ex-parte order of the Supreme Court. 

Investors King recalled that the President in a broadcast ordered the CBN to make only the old N200 notes available as against the directive of the Supreme Court which ordered that all old notes be legal tender alongside the new notes. 

However, findings show that not all banks are complying with the Supreme Court directives. A number of banks that aren’t paying the old notes claim they are yet to receive a directive from the CBN. 

Similarly, a number of experts have faulted the Supreme Court judgement, noting that the apex bank is an independent body. 

Meanwhile, there are uncertainties as most traders still insist on new notes for transactions. Thereby, making the old note useless. 

Many traders stated that they await a press release from the CBN before they will accept the old notes.