Afrigather 
Nigerians, particularly financial institution clients, have been gripped with confusion and uncertainty over whether or not right now’s deadline by the Central Financial institution of Nigeria for the phasing out of the previous naira notes nonetheless stays or it has been suspended following the Supreme Courtroom injunction obtained by some northern governors.
The Supreme Courtroom had on Wednesday dominated that the deadline needs to be suspended pending the dedication of the case introduced earlier than it by the governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States.
The court docket has fastened February 15 to entertain the case. Nevertheless, the Lawyer-Normal of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, in a response to the go well with afterward Wednesday, amongst different issues, mentioned the Supreme Courtroom lacked jurisdiction on the matter.
Nevertheless, on Thursday, a day earlier than the deadline, business banks within the nation and financial institution clients have been thrown into confusion as as to if the previous N1000, N500 and N200 would stop to be authorized tender by Friday (right now) or will retain the standing pending when Supreme Courtroom will look into the go well with introduced earlier than it by the governors.
A number of high financial institution executives, who spoke on situation of anonymity, as a result of they weren’t authorised to talk on the matter, mentioned they may not inform whether or not the Friday deadline can be enforced.
They hinged their argument on the grounds that the CBN-the banking sector regulator-had but to present directives to banks.
Additionally they argued that the governors didn’t be part of banks of their go well with.
When contacted, a high official of Entry Financial institution, who wouldn’t need to be quoted mentioned, “I can’t say sure or no. You recognize there’s a court docket judgment so for now, there’s a Supreme Courtroom judgment and we’ve not obtained any additional communication from the CBN on it.”
One other high supply of Ecobank, whereas reacting to enquiries mentioned, “We don’t know what is going to occur but. You recognize the deadline is Friday (right now), so we are going to nonetheless accumulate previous naira notes on Friday however after that, we don’t know what is going to occur.”
Additionally, an govt of Polaris Financial institution mentioned the lender was awaiting communication from the CBN on the matter.
“As it’s now, we don’t know whether or not Friday is the deadline for the phasing out of previous notes or we have to wait until subsequent week when the Supreme Courtroom will sit on the matter,’” the official mentioned.
Additionally talking on the matter, a high govt of a tier-2 financial institution, mentioned, “There was no directive from the CBN on the matter, as as to if to stick with the February tenth deadline or not. Because the scenario is, new notes aren’t coming in from the CBN as they need to.
“The banks solely have a number of previous notes of their vaults which they’ll’t even pay out. Sadly, due to the paucity of recent notes, some banks solely load their ATMS as soon as a day, as an alternative of three to 4 instances”.
