Naira Redesign: Cash Scarcity Hits Nasarawa, Businessmen Groan

The many residents of Nasarawa state have cried out for help as they have been hit by scarcity of cash, both old and the new notes.

This is even as business operators and customers are in for hard times arising from cash being trapped in commercial banks who have refused to dispense both new and the old notes in the state.

A visit to most of the commercial banks in Lafia, the state capital showed that most Nigerians in Nasarawa State can not withdraw not more than five thousand new naira notes no matter the amount customers intended to withdraw.

Thousands of residents are seen clustering at the banks ATM to cash as little as they may need to cater for their immediate needs without success.

Constraint by the hardship getting cash from the bank, operators of Point of Sale (POS) now Catch on the situation to unleash more hardships on the people in the state.

A survey carried out in Lafia by our correspondent indicated that the POS perators now charges their prospective customers as high as N200 for a transaction of N4000 new notes while a transaction with old notes go for N150 for N2000 in the face of scarcity of cash both old and new.

One of the POS operator, Mallam Salisu Adamu claimed that non availability of the old and new currencies have brought untold hardship on Nigerians whose moneied were trapped in the banks.

He added that the situation has further plunged Nigerians into more hardship calling on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to address the situation aside the extension of the date for the official use of the new Naira Notes.

“This policy has really brought about suffering to Nigerians rather than strengthened the economy. What is the essence of changing the currencies when it is not accessible to citizens” Salisu questioned?

“We have to go to the bank and negotiate prices with the bank officials on the new Naira Notee. It has become a hot cake which has also influenced the normal charges by the POS operators. We sympathize with our customers due to the skyrocketed charges our customers are left with for withdrawal”.