March 31 deadline: Nigerians reject N5, N10, N50 notes

ONE clear month to the deadline for the use of the old N5, N10 and N50 paper notes, Nigerians, especially traders and transporters, are rejecting them as legal tenders already.


The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had last year introduced the polymer notes to replace the three denominations  and gave a six-month grace to phase them out.


But ahead of the expiration of the months of grace expires by the end of this month, the notes are being rejected.
According to some people who spoke with the Nigerian Compass, the notes were being rejected because the deadline for its usage as legal tender was close, adding that they did not want to be caught unaware.


A commercial bus driver plying the Oshodi-Sango route, Mr. Raimi Olokooba, said: “I cannot collect that money because it will soon expire. They said it is March 31 and I may not be able to spend it if I collect it.


“What will I be doing with expired money inside my house? I don’t have a bank account and the process of changing the money in bank is horrible.


“I know what I went through the last time they changed the money. I still have some N5 and N10 notes in my house. Those in the banks did not answer us then. So, I don’t want the same thing to happen.”


A trader at Maryland, Lagos, who identified herself as Mrs. Owolabi, said she started rejecting it when people refused to collect the paper notes from her.


She said that she had no intention of rejecting the paper notes, but had to do so as people who she patronised  rejected the notes from.


Her words: “I was at Balogun Market to buy some things and the person I usually buy my stocks from rejected the money. I pleaded with her but she refused, then you want me to accept it. No, I have stopped collecting it.


“I don’t go to bank. Even if I go, how much will I say I want to change and they said that the money will expire by March ending? Where will I keep the expired one. I cannot go through the trouble of changing money in the bank, I have experienced it before and I don’t want that kind of experience again.”


But many Nigerians expressed shock when drivers and traders rejected the paper notes and demanded to be paid in polymer notes, even 30 days to the expiration of the deadline.


A mechanic, Mr. Adeolu Irewa, who boarded a commercial tricycle popularly called ‘Keke Marwa’ along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, said that he was surprised when the driver of the tricycle rejected the N50 paper note he gave to him as transportation fare.


He said; “It almost caused a quarrel because if I did not have any other money on me, I would not have paid for the fare. He rejected it because the deadline for the stoppage of the use of the money is closer.”


A commercial telephone operator at a call centre at Ojodu Area of Lagos, Ifeanyinwa Uchechukwu, recounted how she quarreled with one of her customers over the latter’s refuser to change the two N10 paper notes to polymer note.

She said: “The man used one minute for the call and paid me with two N10 paper notes. When I asked him to change it because nobody will collect them from me, he refused. I appealed to him but he did not listen. That was how we started quarreling and I had to abuse him.


“People around here who are selling things and who also know that people have started rejecting the money had to intervene, yet he did not pay. I had to leave the money for him.”


President Umaru Yar’Adua as part of the Nigeria’s last Independence Anniversary on October 1, 2009, launched the new N5, N10 and N50 polymer notes as legal tender in the country.


The existing denominations of N5, N10 and N50 paper notes, was to remain legal tender and to be circulated side-by-side with the new polymer notes for the six months till March 31.
Speaking at the launch, the Governor of the Central CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, urged Nigerians to embrace the new currencies as well as strive to keep the naira clean and check the abuse to which the currency has been subjected to over the years.


He said that the campaign to keep the naira clean will further been enhanced by the introduction of the new polymers notes.


“Banks”, he said, “have established exchange windows to enable the public exchange the new polymer notes with their genuine old ‘paper’ bank notes, which cease to be a legal tender from March 2010.”


Highlighting the advantages of the polymer notes on the paper bank notes, Sansui said that the polymer notes were made of water-proof materials resistant to easy  tear and dirt.


The CBN had in 1073 introduced notes for 50 kobo, N1, N5, N10 and N20. The 50 kobo was issued last in 1989.
In 1991, the N50 notes were issued, followed by N100 in 1999, N200 in 2000, N500 in 2001 and N1000 on October 12, 2005.


On February 28, 2007, new versions of the N5 to N50 banknotes were introduced. Originally, the N10, N20 and N50 were planned to be in polymer banknotes, but only the N20 was made of polymer until October 1, 2009.
The notes were slightly smaller (130 x 23 mm) and redesigned from the preceding issues.