Nigerian banks have started paying customers with old naira notes over the counter and via Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) prompting a sense of relief among many citizens.

The move came after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a directive for banks to fully comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which extended the validity of old N200, N500, and N1000 notes until December 31, 2023.

However, many banks could not satisfy their customers due to limited cash in the vault

Several branches visited in Lagos, including those on Airport Road, Ikotun, Ojota, Ketu and Ikorodu had no cash available.

Most banks, as expected, have returned the old naira notes collected from customers in the last few months to the CBN

Due to the limited cash availability, many banks have restricted over-the-counter payments to N20,000 and allowed only one-time ATM withdrawals of N10,000

Zenith Bank customer who identified herself simply as Damilola said.

“At Guaranty Trust Bank the bank’s ATMs dispensed N10,000 old notes for the bank customers while others who do not have a GTB account are given N1,000.”

A Twitter user, with the handle @MaryAkinola also said

“I don’t think everything is going back to “normal” anytime soon because queue at Gtbank this morning is reaching 510 in number and they are only giving 4k old notes via the counter.

“No ATM [is] dispensing! I think this is more than a naira redesign! Why can’t they pay more than 4,000