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By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
As the January 31 deadline for the old naira to cease being a legal tender in Nigeria,gets nearer, many bank customers in Lokoja, kogi State, north central Nigeria on Friday, continued to troop to their banks to either deposit the old naira or withdrawl the new ones.
Our who visited some of the bank reports a jam-packed customer population to transact business to beat the deadline.
In the process, our Correspondent reports that human factors crept in with some customers, especially operators of Point of Sale(POS), using multiple ATM card to withdraw the new money to beat the N20,000 withdrawal limit set by the Central Bank of Nigeia to meet their customers.
Investigation by the online publication revealed that most POS operators cashed in on the difficulty in getting the new naira notes from the banks to make extra charge on their customers.
POS operators involved in such illegal deal are said to compel their customers to pay N500 charge for N10,000 made instead of the normal N200 for the same amount.
This negative development did not go down with some other customers who challenged the move, thus, creating rowdiness but others quickly shot the trouble and peace returned.
Our Correspondent reports that unlike Wednesday,many banks,such as JAIZ bank in the area dispensed the new notes to customers on Friday,thus, easing tension created by the scarcity of the new notes with banks sticking to N20,000 withdrawal limited.
Speaking with The Reporters in a telephone interview in Lokoja,a retired state director, Dr.Abdul Denja, commended the Central Bank of Nigeia CBN, for insisting that January 31 deadline remain sacrosanct.
According to me,the stand of CBN on the issue would go along way in instilling a sense of timelines among Nigerians who believe in “fire bridgade” in execution national issues.
