•CBN hints at investigating banks
- We no longer depend on banks for cash – PoS operators
•Banks say they are also having cash shortages
There are indications that the lingering crisis in cash circulation in the country may continue for a long time even as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, plans to launch investigations.
Banks’ customers have been lamenting the acute scarcity of cash for their daily living as most banks now restrict cash withdrawals over the counter as well as the Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) to between N10,000 and N20,000 per day.
They also complain that most ATMs are left unloaded with cash by banks for days.
However, they also noted that while the banks are unable to dispense cash to the customers, the Point of Sales, PoS, operators just beside or opposite the banks have enough cash to dispense to the same customers.
This situation has raised suspicion amongst banks’ customers that the banks are having some sizzling business deals with the PoS operators to short-change the customers who are now forced to pay some charges for withdrawing their money from their bank accounts through the PoS operators.
Some of the customers even alleged that the PoS services are owned by bank officials.
However, Vanguard findings from the both the banks and the PoS operators indicated that they are not in any sinister deal to foist cash scarcity on hapless banks’ customers.
Some PoS operators have also complained of their inability to access cash in banks and have now resorted to other sources of cash.
