Anxiety is building up as commercial banks in Kano are refusing to attend to customers with the old naira notes.

Our correspondent gathered that the banks are not issuing the new naira notes to customers in return.

The Guardian observed that some branches of financial institutions in the city have already shut down operations against possible vent of anger by angry customers. It was also noticed that the few banks open for business are with a heavy security presence.

Despite the recent order by the supreme court restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal government from implementing the 10th February deadline set for acceptance of the old legal tender, the apex bank has remained indifferent on the court pronouncement.

A number of residents who spoke with The Guardian at different banks visited lamented frustration as a result of bank rejection of old notes and scarcity of the new notes.

Muktar Yakubu, one of the customers disclosed that GTBank on Zaria road rejected the old notes and he could not exceed more than N5,000 new notes on the counter. He’s worried that the Automated Teller Machine ATM is a no-go area because of the huge number of people waiting to cash the new notes.

Similarly, Abubakar Aminu accused Fidelity bank on Zoo road of issuing N5,000 new notes on the counter after the outright rejection of the old notes. The angry customers wondered why the banks would subject customers to untold harsh after the supreme court ruling.

In the same vein, Idris Jamilu regretted depositing all his cash to the banks a few weeks ago because of the present difficulties in accessing the same. He said the attempt to cash money through ATM was not successful because Zenith bank on zoo road has shut down business.

On why the customers refused to take advantage of POS service to cash their monies, the respondents lamented the outrageous charges operators now place on each transaction.

A bank manager in one of the new generation banks in Kano who preferred to speak with The Guardian on condition of anonymity because of security revealed that his branch was under instruction to henceforth refuse the old notes pending further directive from CBN.

Moreover, the senior banker disclosed that the same CBN has refused to release new naira notes to banks to ease the naira scrunch.

Another banker who would also want his name hidden told our correspondent that banks are equally under tension because of the growing frustration of customers.

“As you can see, we are not receiving old notes and at the same time, we don’t have enough new notes. We can only dispense the little we have on ATM and as soon as that is exhausted we don’t have any cash until we receive again from CBN.”

On why the rejection of the old notes despite the supreme court ruling, the bank manager stressed that banks are still expecting further directives from the CBN on the order.

“You know we are financial institutions we don’t have choice than to follow instruction. CBN is expected to issue memo or directive whether or not bank should comply that is how we work in the industry.”

Meanwhile, the Kano State Government has shutdown Wellcare shopping mall for rejecting the old naira notes from customers. The sanction followed the warning issued to business outlets and managers of banks against the currency swap in the country.

The state government had joined suit with other state governments challenging the Federal government and CBN seeking to outlaw the old notes in circulation.