Cattle Traders in Bauchi wants CBN, others to intensify awareness campaign on new Naira notes.
By Abubakar Baba Ahmad
Cattle Traders in Bauchi State have appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN to intensify its sensitisation campaign on the new Naira notes for people in hard to reach areas, to avoid last hour rush and massive loss of wealth among rural people.
The Chairman Cattle Dealers, Mararraban Liman Katagum in Bauchi local government, Alhaji Hashimu Isah made the call at a sensitisation campaign on the new naira notes policy organised by the Apex Bank at Cattle Market Mararraban Liman Katagum.
Alhaji Hashimu Isah said a lot of cattle dealers and traders have no basic knowledge on how to operate a bank account thereby falling into the hands of fraudsters, hence the need for more awareness to ensure they don’t lose their means of livelihood when the old notes sieze to be legal tenders.
Also speaking, the Chairman Miyetti Allah Association in Tafawa Balewa local government Saidu Adamu stressed the need for the Apex Bank and other supporting agencies to increase sensitisation especially in hard to reach areas.
On his part, the Director Medical Services of the CBN, Dr Abdulkadir Jibril said the exercise was initiated due to complaints by teeming populace on the refusal of Banks to stock their ATMs with the new notes.
Dr Abdulkadir Jibril charged rural dwellers especially cattle traders to hasten the deposit of the old naira notes by either opening accounts with banks of their choice, CBN Authorized Agents, Mobile Money Operators or other electronic channels to prevent them from losing their money.
“We have to go out to the rural areas as we’ve done now to sensitise all Nigerians at the grassroots so that they’ll know what the exercise is all about so that no Nigerian should lose his or her money at the end of January 2023,” Dr Abdulkadir discloses.
While inspecting the level of compliance among commercial banks, the Director Medical Services of the CBN, Dr Abdulkadir Jibril warned the banks against hoarding of the new notes, noting that the Apex Bank has directed them to stop the issuance of cash over the counter.
“We’ve discovered unfortunately some of the bank managers have reserved such notes for some of their favoured customers depriving majority of Nigerians who are the main target, so to stop that instruction was given by Central Bank that no new currency should be issued across the counter, they should all ne flooded to the Automated Teller Machines the ATMs,” the CBN Director explains,
Speaking on the features of the new notes, a staff from the Research Department of the CBN Inusah Jamilu listed some of the visible security features to include unique serial number, CBN inscription on the thread, portrait on the right side of the currency when tilted towards light among others.
Earlier, the State Director National Orientation Agency NOA Alhaji Nuru Kobi who disclosed that the agency has deployed it staff to all nooks and crannies of the state to enlighten people on the new naira notes and cashless policy, added that the measure will check corruption among public officials and ransom taking from kidnappers.
“So we are now in the market area to talk to traders and other market people because they are very essential and most of them have a lot of money in stock especially their daily sales, to encourage them to quickly take their money to the bank on daily basis especially the old naira notes not to wait untill its too late because towards the end is going to be a rushing issue especially in the banks,” Kobi enlightens.
In an interview with Radio Nigeria, a resident of Mararraban Liman Katagum Ridwan Hassan and a phone repairer Abdulmumini Soro thanked the central bank for the initiative and promised to ensure full compliance with the new policy.
