By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
Hundreds of bank customers in Lokoja and its environs in Kogi State, north central Nigeria on Monday, continued to experience difficulty in accessing the scarce new naira notes from ATM in spite the extension of January 31 deadline in the going exchange of old notes with the new ones.
The Reporters recalls that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeia, CBN,Godwin Emefiele, citing permission from President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday, announced extension of the deadline for bank customers to deposit their old naira in exchange for the new ones from January 31 to February 10.
Our Correspondent who visited some banks in Lokoja reports that many customers were seen cluster round the banks with long faces to withdraw the new money from ATM without success and went home disappointed.
In banks where new notes were dispensed, customers who spoke with our Correspondent expressed disgust over the poor service, exemplified by the slow nature of the ATM,the Nigerian factor and the fact that some of ATM became malfunctioned making customers stranded for hours.
Other factors responsible for the suffering of bank customers, according to sources include;perceived insufficient new naira notes at the possession of banks.
They also accused politicians and the “untouchable Nigerians” of conniving with bank officers to manipulate the utilisation of the new notes to the detrement of customers.
As a result of the problem,many bank customers who opted for Point of Sale POS, claimed that they paid N500 for N5,000 withdrawn, representing 10 per cent service charge, instead of the normal N100.
Mrs Angela Ibrahim, Mr Karim Mohammed and Mal. Aliyu Yahaya, who spoke with our correspondent at First bank, Ganaja junction branch, Lokoja expressed pessimism that the extension of the deadline might not have meaning in the life of the masses using banks to transact businesses.
Ibrahim,who said she had been queuing in banks for three days without withdrawing money, called on the Apex Bank to redouble efforts in checking instances of corruption going on in the implementation of the new naira note policy.
“How can CBN tell Nigerians that it has provided adequate naira notes for banks for dispense to customers and yet thousands of the customers are passing through the needle’s eye before they can withdraw the money they save in the banks.
“The extension of the deadline is a good decision but it must be used to monitor banks effectively to ensure that the new naira get to the customers and not a situation where by politicians come in to thwart the success derivable from such policy.”
