By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Bank customers in Lagos State have lamented they are tired of what they going through, considering the failure of both the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and commercial banks to dispense cash to their customers in the state.
Most of the bank customers interviewed by thegazellenews.com said that for several days, they have been in the banks without accessing their money deposited in their bank accounts.
They lamented that the bank customers might organize demonstrations at the CBN in Lagos State and the State Government House if the current trend continues.
According to on one Adegboyega Yekinni, a customer in one old generation banks, said for two days his bank refused to pay him and other customers saying they are short of new Naira notes.
Yekinni, while to blaming the CBN bank for the scarcity of both old and new Naira notes, added that, “for the past two days, I have been in this bank to collect my money but I couldn’t get it. I t is a sad situation. How do they want me to feed my family without my own money in my hands? They want us to die of starvation.
“Both the banks and Point of Sale, POS, nowhere one can’t collect money. We are not asking for loans from the banks but our hard-earned money.
“The Federal Government and CBN said we should deposit the old Naira notes on or before January 31st which we did but see the trauma they making us to go through. It is saddening that we cannot access both the old and new Naira notes. This is man’s inhumanity against man. It is a sad commentary on a nation called Nigeria”.
According to one bank official who did not want to disclose his name for security reasons, the capacity of an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, is up to N10 million but banks hardly load N1 million, blaming the hardship on insufficient funds.
He said bank officials are working at risk as angry customers have been threatening to attack them for failure to give them their money, saying that most of the problems are caused by the CBN. He added that the Apex Bank is the one making life unbearable for Nigerians.
Thegazellenews.com gathered that some banks with money in their ATMs do not allow customers to withdraw more than N5,000.
This medium reports that most businesses in the State are in a state of paralysis as the operators could not afford to continue with their businesses due to low patronage and scarcity of old and new Naira notes.
