By Temitope Hassan
Some Nigerian churches have stopped collecting old notes for offerings and tithing from members.
This happened prior to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announcement of a 10-day extension of the deadline for the use of old notes on Sunday, January 29, 2023.
A visit to some churches in Benin City revealed that while most Pentecostal Churches accepted the old and new notes for offerings and tithes, it was not the same for others as they refused to accept the old notes from members.
It was gathered that the All Souls Anglican Church, Living Faith Church, all in Benin City and Corporate Worship Church, Campus II, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi accepted both the old and new Naira Notes for their tithes and offerings.
At the Salvation Assurance Ministries, AKA, ‘I Care Centre’, while members were allowed to pay their offerings and tithes with the old and new notes, the Church announced that it would not accept the old notes from members from next Sunday Service, apparently for fear of the earlier CBN deadline.
For the Evidence of Christ Church, it was a total rejection of the old notes as the church announced the rejection upon the commencement of Sunday Service yesterday.
Members were seen paying their tithes and offerings with the new Naira notes while others sat down in their chairs in what was later scooped to be informed by lack of the new notes .
Upon visits to some Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in Benin City, residents (mainly church members) were seen as early as 5am checking ATMs’ with the hope to withdrawing the new notes for their offerings and tithing.
Their hopes were, however, dashed in most banks they visited owing to their ATMs’ not dispensing money.
Similarly, some Churches in Warri and its environs in Delta State during their Sunday services rejected offerings from their members, saying they will no longer accept the old naira notes still in circulation.
Most churches were not filled to capacity due to the hike in petrol price.
Members who do not have the new naira notes couldn’t give offerings either.
The rejection of the old naira notes may affect the account of the churches negatively.
This is coming as most churches announced to their members not to bring the old naira notes to church last Sunday in Warri.
Traders have already rejected the same old naira notes. This has reduced sales for them.
At the time of filing this report, some crowds besieged some of the banks in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area as early as 6am.
The crowds struggled to deposit their old naira notes into their accounts.
Some of the banks that were overtaken by crowds includes, Union Bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, UBA, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank and First City Monument Bank, FCMB.
Source: intelregion
