A correspondent from Prime 9ja Online (P9O) monitored various markets, commercial banks, bus parks, and points of sale on Friday and found that the old notes still needed to be accepted. Residents cited the demands of commercial banks for certain codes before the notes could be deposited as one of the reasons for their reluctance.
One resident, Paul Emeka, a fashion designer, said he had heard about Governor Obaseki's appeal to accept the old notes, but most people still needed to do so. Emeka recounted an incident where a bus driver refused to accept his old N1,000 note as payment for transportation fare. According to him, the driver said he had collected old N500 notes from passengers the day before, but the fuel attendant refused to accept them as payment.
Another resident, Mrs Rosemary Osas, urged the state government to do more sensitization about the acceptance of the old notes at markets, bus parks, and other public places. Osas narrated her experience of being given old N1,000 notes at GTbank along Agbor Road in Benin but needing help to use them to purchase food items in the market.
P9O reports that some banks like First Bank and GTbank were still giving out the old N500 and N1,000 notes to customers at the counter despite the rejection by some customers. Only a few bank customers were ready to collect the old notes, with the optimism that the notes would be accepted by members of the public anytime soon.