By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Many bank customers over the weekend in Lagos expressed their anger as banks remained closed instead of opening for customers to get the much needed Naira notes, just as while their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were not dispensing cash to people.
When thegazellenews.com visited most of the banks in Ikeja and Alimosho areas customers loitering around customers hanging around hoping to get some Naira notes.
Some of the customers went to banks hoping that banks would attend to them but unfortunately reverse was the case. Most of them waited endlessly and when they could not achieved their mission, they went home with sadness.
A bank customer, who simply identified himself as John Bassey, in a chat with thegazellenews.com, decried the scarcity of cash and the insensitivity of the banks to sufferings customers are going through as a result of cash scarcity
“The banks are so insensitive to the cries of the their customers What stops them from opening shop today (Saturday, and loading their ATMs with cash for us to withdraw money. We don’t know who should be held responsible for this development, is it the banks or the Central Bank (CBN).
“We do not even know who to blame between the CBN and the banks. If the CBN has supplied cash to any bank and they are refusing to supply their customers, such a bank should be sanctioned,” Bassey said
Another bank customer, who identified herself as Bukky Oriloye, said, the CBN need to wield its sledge hammer on the banks that refused to attend to customers to serve as an example
“It is unfortunate that banks are taken their customers for granted. They forgot that at a critical time like this, it is their social responsibility to ensure that customers do not go through hardship. It seems they derive joy seeing us going through this trauma.
“If the claims of CBN that it has made available the newly redesigned Naira and the old N200 notes to banks are true, by the now the problem would have been solved.
“And If the banks failed in their duties to make enough cash available to their customers to dispense available cash, the CBN should wade in by withdrawing the licences of such erring banks,” she said.
The CBN’s Naira redesign policy and phasing out of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes had been met with resistance across the country due to scarcity of the new Naira notes.
President Muhammadu Buhari, however, waded in on Thursday, 16 February, 2023, when he authorised the CBN to continue to accept the old N200 banknote as legal tender for additional 60 days, till April 10 in his nationwide broadcast to Nigerians.
Buhari said that the old N500 and N1, 000 notes have been phased out and would no longer be accepted as legal tender, adding that the additional 60-day concession was as a result of difficulty faced by Nigerians in accessing the redesigned Naira notes.
The president, who said the new monetary policy was not aimed to punish Nigerians, explained that the policy was designed to mop up huge currencies outside of the banking system into the system to deepen financial inclusion and also protect the Naira.
According to him, there was the need to restore the statutory role of the CBN to have control over monies in circulation.
“In 2015, currency in circulation was only N1.4 trillion. The proportion of currency outside the banks grew from 78 per cent in 2015 to 85 per cent in 2022.
“As of Oct., 2022, currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion, out of which only N500 billion was within the banking system, while N2.7 trillion remained permanently outside the system,” he said.
Buhari said since the policy was introduced, N2.1 trillion of the currency outside of the banking system has been returned to the system.
Buhari directed the CBN to intensify collaboration with anti-corruption agencies to check activities of individuals and groups bent on frustrating the smooth implementation of the currency redesign policy.
He called on the CBN to ensure that any institution or person found to be sabotaging the implementation was made to face the wrath of the law.
“I am not unaware of the obstacles placed on the path of innocent Nigerians by unscrupulous officials in the banking industry, entrusted with the process of implementation of the new monetary policy.I am deeply pained and sincerely sympathise with you all over these unintended outcomes,” Buhari said
“To stem this tide, I have directed the CBN to deploy all legitimate resources and legal means to ensure that our citizens are adequately educated on the policy.I have similarly directed that the CBN should intensify collaboration with anti-corruption agencies.
“Any institution or person found to have impeded or sabotaged the implementation should be made to bear the full weight of the law,” the President said.
