The lawmaker representing Borno South District, Senator Ali Ndume, has revealed the implication of the January 31, 2023 deadline of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Naija News reports that Ndume during an interview on Channels TV said the decision of CBN would affect vulnerable Nigerians, including low and middle-income earners.
The politician noted that the deadline will also affect the Northerners, particularly those in rural communities due to the absence of banks in the area.
According to Ali Ndume, many banks in the North have been destroyed following the high rate of insurgency in the region.
He said: “For me, the way they are [going about] it is the problem,” he said. “And as I said, my own motion is simple – and it was Nigerians’ motion, it was not my motion. For me, this change of money, withdrawal, and all that does not bother me.
“But the truth of the matter is that the president must be made to understand that majority of Nigerians that are poor or middle-income will be the victims, especially in the North where we don’t have banks and our people move from market to market with raw cash with no banks.
“We have 27 local governments. You can only find banks in five or six LGAs. The rest of the 20 to 21 have no banks at all right now.
“Those banks that were operating there before were closed down or even destroyed by the insurgents. And some of the areas don’t have any network, so it’s not easy to even do transactions with PoS (point-of-sales terminals).”
