Zamfara residents lament shortage of new Naira notes

Residents of Zamfara State have lamented that the new notes introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has posed serious economic threats to their lives.

Newsmen gathered that markets, shops, filling stations, restaurants and other businesses were closed due to a shortage of the new notes introduced by CBN and the rejection of old notes before the deadline.

It was also learnt that most of the residents had been frustrated as their businesses were fast crumbling due to lack of patronage. They lamented the uncontrollable problem has pushed many people to hardships that include the inability to buy foodstuff, transport and other consumables.

This medium also reports that long queues have continued to persist in all the banks in the state as people are rushing to deposit their old notes to meet up with January 31, the CBN deadline.

Most of the bank customers were seen quarrelling with bank officials, accusing them of deliberately delaying them.

According to one Mustapha Umar, the Central Bank that introduced the policy was supposed to have pushed out enough new notes before giving the deadline because it rushed the policy.

“Even the Point of Sales (POS) and the banks cannot dispense cash, then they want us to die of hunger and starvation”, he lamented.

Newsmen further reports that only a few filling stations in the state were operating as of Thursday with unprecedented queues and challenges of bribery by some motorists to beat the queues.