Perception of University Lecturers on the Availability and Accessibility of New Naira Notes in Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the perceptions of university lecturers on the availability and accessibility of new naira notes in Nigeria. Two research questions and two research hypotheses were developed to guide the study in order to achieve the study's objectives. For the study, a survey research design was used. The study's population consists of 280 university lecturers from the three universities across the eighteen local governments in Cross River State who responded accidentally to the instrument. An 18-item questionnaire titled "Perception of University Lecturers on the Availability and Accessibility of New Naira Notes in Nigeria" (PULAANNNIN) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by two experts, and the overall reliability index for the instrument was 0.92, which was obtained by using Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients. The collected data were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, percentage, and independent t-test. The findings of the study show that new naira notes were not available across bank counters, bank ATMs, and POS cash points. The findings also showed that there was no accessibility of new naira notes across bank counters, bank ATMs, and POS cash points in Cross River State, Nigeria. It was concluded that CBN should make the new naira notes available in commercial banks, bank ATMs, and POS cash points for easy accessibility by bank customers. Among others, it was recommended that the Central Bank of Nigeria increase its weekly withdrawal limit to the commercial banks to ensure the availability and accessibility of new naira notes in circulation.   Received: 15 March 2023 / Accepted: 28 June 2023 / Published: 5 July 2023