Less than seven days before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deadline for old notes to cease being legal tender, some point-of-sale (POS) operators in Bauchi have increased the charge for transactions in the banknotes.

A check on Tuesday showed that POS increased the deposit charge by about 50 per cent.

The operators now charge between N150 and N200 for N5,000 and N10,000 deposits against N100, respectively.

Others refused transactions in the old naira notes a few days before the January 31 deadline.

A POS operator, Grace Simon, said she rejected the old naira because it was difficult for her to deposit it in the banks due to long queues of customers.

“There are a multitude of customers in the banks. You have to spend several hours in the queue to deposit the old naira notes. Honestly, I don’t have the strength, and that is why some of us increased the charges for old naira notes. The charge for a transaction in the new banknotes still remains the same,” she said.

Another POS agent, Aliyu Babayo, said they rejected the old naira notes because of the new cash withdrawal policy.

“You can only withdraw a limited amount of money on the counter, which is not enough to meet daily transactions. And the queues in the banks to deposit the old notes are long and hectic; this explains the increase in the transaction charge,” he said.

Another POS agent, Dorcas Silas, said the redesigning of the naira negatively affected their operations, forcing some of them to close.

“With increased transaction charges in old naira notes, many customers would not patronise us; the situation is worrisome,” she said

A trader, Musa Akuyam, said he refused the transaction of the old currency to avoid counting losses.

“I rejected old naira notes because I couldn’t deposit the ones I have due to queues in the banks,” he said.

Reacting, Abdulkadir Jibrin, director of medical services of the CBN, warned against rejecting the old naira notes before the January 31 deadline. He said the apex bank had scaled community sensitisation to create awareness of the redesigned naira notes.

He advised residents of the state to channel their complaints to the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of the bank.

“We have channels, we have to sensitise and educate severally, and we will continue to do that,” he said.

(NAN)