How Nigerian Traders Are Rejecting Old Naira Notes: My Bitter Experience

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Hello everyone in the hive blockchain. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. Welcome to my blog.

I woke up this morning feeling excited. I was happy not because I had a nice dream (I can’t remember the last time I had a dream) or because the first person I saw was a beautiful person. Although the first person I saw was beautiful, that was not why I was feeling excited. The 4 hour class I was supposed to have this morning got canceled last night. Why would a lecturer fix a four hour class on a Saturday? Well, I was so happy when I heard that he canceled the class because he had official business in another school.

I turned my phone on and headed straight to WhatsApp. After chatting with a few of my friends, I started checking my friends’ status. Then I saw something that shocked me.The status was about the new currency. The Nigerian government changed the country’s currency. Rumors have been going on that the old currency will stop being valid this month and that people should deposit their old notes in their banks. The status I checked was about the currency and it read something along these lines “people shouldn’t use the old currency anymore”

I jumped up from my bed. “They should be joking,” I said to myself. A few days ago, I withdrew 10 thousand Nairas (old currency) to buy something and I’ve not spent it. What do I do with the money? I know I should’ve deposited it as soon as I heard rumors about the currency, but my bank is far away from where I stay, and I’ve not had time for myself due to school work.

My roommate was still asleep. I woke him up and told him about the status. He shrugged and said “that’s how you people spread rumors”. Well, to tell the truth, I also didn’t believe what I read on the status. This is Nigeria, where people can just wake up one day and create fake contents. I decided to forget about the status and get on with the day’s business.

Since it was a free day, I decided to do a little bit of cleaning. I washed plates, clothes and I also cooked a delicious meal. While I was eating, one of my hostel mates came in and announced that people (traders, drivers, bike men) are no longer accepting the old currency. Boom! My roommate was awake at that time, he rushed outside to confirm. Apparently, he had 20k (old currency) with him. Times two of mine.

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One after the other, my hostel mates started coming out. Lots of them still had the old currency. Then someone brought up an idea. A brilliant idea. To go out and try our luck if some shops will accept the old currency and find other ways to deposit the money in our bank accounts.

To our greatest surprise, even drivers and bike men refused the old naira notes. What do we do now? After trekking and checking different shops, we finally came across a POS shop. The only available POS shop in my street. We were happy when the POS lady said she still collects the old Naira notes. But on one condition, we have to pay for charges. My roommate that deposited 20 thousand naira paid 3k as charges. I deposited 10 thousand Nairas and I paid 1500.

When we got back to our hostel, we heard news that the deadline for using the old currency has been postponed to the 31st of January. Well, I’m glad I was able to deposit my money in my bank account.

For the first time in my life, I saw a bikeman using a POS and I paid him with my ATM card. The new currency is not fully in circulation and they want to ban the old notes. How do you expect people to transact when the new currency is not fully in circulation?

Well, I'm hearing rumors that they want to extend the deadline. I just hope they extend it and give us at least 1 month.

Thanks for reading.