Nigerian Bank Issues Coins To Customer In Lagos As Naira Notes Scarcity Persists

It was serious drama that took place recently at a commercial bank in Lagos.

There was drama in Lagos State on Tuesday after a commercial bank resorted to issuing bags of coins to customers as scarcity of the naira notes persists.

BBC Pidgin reports that an unnamed bank customer went to the commercial bank in Lagos to make withdrawal but rather than getting banknotes, the customer was given a sack bag filled with N2000 in coins in two places.

It was gathered that some commercial banks in the country decided to be issuing coins to customers as they did not have the new Naira notes while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had insisted that the old notes ceased to be a legal tender on February 10 as scheduled despite the Supreme Court’s interim injunction.

Nigerians have been subjected to terrible and excruciating poverty and difficulty with the Naira redesign and cashless policy as the scarcity of the new Naira notes have led to total cashlessness in the hands of the people leading to closure of businesses while many pupils and students no longer go to school because they do not have transport fare.

To make the matters worse, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had earlier promised that after the February 10 deadline for the old Naira notes, Nigerians can return all the old notes in their possession to their deposit banks, but the frustration has become worse as the CBN has made the process of returning the old notes more cumbersome with its requirements and the fact that people must return their old notes to the CBN alone.