Naira notes crisis: Bank customers threaten demonstration at CBN, Zamfara Govt House

Bank customers in Zamfara State have lamented that they have reached the limit of their endurance, considering the failure of both the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and commercial banks to dispense cash to their customers in the state.

Most of the bank customers interviewed lamented that for several days, they have been in the banks without accessing their money due to sharp practices.

They lamented that the bank customers might organize demonstrations at the CBN in Gusau and the State Government House if the ugly situation persists.

According to one Hamisu, a customer, his bank ceased operation for two days due to a lack of new Naira notes, blaming the apex bank for the scarcity of both old and new Naira notes.

“Everyday, I am at the bank to collect the money I deposited with the bank but all to no avail”, he lamented.

“Both the banks and Point of Sale, POS, nowhere one can collect his money. We are not asking for loans from the banks but our legitimate right.

“The Federal Government and CBN forced us to deposit the old Naira notes on or before January 31st which we did but now, we can not access both the old and new Naira notes. This is inhumanity against human.”

According to one bank official who did not want to disclose his name for security reasons, the capacity of an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, is up to N10 million but banks hardly load N1 million, blaming the hardships on the insufficient funds.

He said bank officials are working at risk as the angry customers have been threatening to attack them for failure to give them their money, saying that most of the problems were caused by the apex bank.

Newsmen observed that some banks with money in their ATMs do not allow customers to withdraw more than N5,000.

This medium reports that most businesses in the State have collapsed as the operators could not afford to continue with their businesses due to low patronage and scarcity of old and new Naira notes.