•Customers kick against spike in failed e-transanctions •Groan in SouthEast over new Naira notes shortage
As Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) begin full implementation of the cash withdrawal limit recently mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), customers appear not to be finding the development funny as many are bent on withdrawing above the N100,000 daily threshold for individuals and N1 million for corporate organisations.
The policy on daily cash withdrawal limit took effect on Monday, January 9.
Under this arrangement, the maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals across all corporate organisations is now N500,000 and N5 million, respectively. This translates to N100,000 daily for individuals and N1 million for corporate organisations.
Thus, anyone or organisation that has a compelling need to withdraw above the approved limits to transact legitimate businesses will pay a processing fee of 3 percent and 5percent for individuals and corporate organisations, respectively.
However, many describe the new rule as harsh, wondering why it is easier to deposit their money but will pass through incredible bureaucracy and peppery charges to withdraw.
Nonetheless, a visit to various banks in Abuja and other parts of the country shows bank staff having a hectic time explaining the new reality to their worried depositors.
At a Tier 2 bank in Wuse, a customer who claimed to be a contractor, insisted on taking his entire savings home as he would not accept a “mere N100,000 cash”.
“How do I pay my workers? Most of them have no bank accounts. Only two people’s money is more than N100,000. Does it mean I’ll use weeks to sort out payments? This policy won’t work. It will cause chaos in the polity. The additional charges are peppery and unfortunate”, he lamented.
Another depositor, Tunde Francis, said the policy would destroy his distribution business.
Another angry customer, Umaru Gambo, said the CBN policies were dissuading many from the banks.
“The protocol needed to withdraw more than N100,000 is too cumbersome. I don’t mind taking my entire money. This is a nasty experience”, he lamented.
At the popular Zuba Market in Abuja, Point of Sales operators said the new rule would run them out of business.
Felix Yahaya, a PoS agent lamented: “How can we survive like this? This is anti-masses because the rich will always have access to cash one or the other but the poor will suffer. CBN should look into this policy for the sake of the poor”, be said.
The Director, Corporate Communications Department of the CBN, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, noted that the new naira notes are not for swapping as some citizens are attempting to swap large volumes of existing notes for new notes in banks.
When Daily Sun visited various banks, scores of miffed customers besieged the customer care desks to lodge and sort out failed transactions; where initiating accounts are debited but receivers are not credited.
The queues for complaints were longer than the average daily scenario.
Many others were affected”, he lamented.
Frustrated customers have been lampooning banks on various social media platforms for serially failing to guarantee successful transactions, especially during the Christmas celebrations.
Meanwhile bank customers and Point of Sales (PoS) operators across the country looked frustrated yesterday as they could barely make easy cash withdrawals owing to long queues in the bank following the second day of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s cash withdrawal policy.
Daily Sun gathered that in apparent compliance notices to customers, banks on Monday stepped up sensitization, urging customers to comply with the apex bank’s directive. However, PoS operators in Lagos who visited the banks on Tuesday, revealed that there is every likelihood of an increase in charge of PoS operations due to the queues witnessed in the banking halls.
I had to transfer money from my current account to my savings account to collect money. I even had to transfer to a friend’s account but I cannot continue to do this because it is very risky.
This means we operators will start increasing charges per withdrawal because we are going through stress. I was told to register my business and in doing so I must provide documents which are costly at the moment and where will I see the money to do so? If not my business”.
Also speaking, Doris Chibunna, an entrepreneur and bank customer, said the CBN’s policy but noted that this might slow down cash transactions in the economy.
Every other developed country has adopted this cashless policy and it is high time we do the same thing as a developing country.
The truth is that it was supposed to have come before this time”, she said.
When Daily Sun visited some of the banks’ customer relations units, a staff of one of the new generational banks, said the customers have been constantly complaining and clearly frustrated about the little supply of the new notes and added that current account holders have clearly been frustrated with getting the necessary documents to withdraw.
“I had just one case of one man who was visibly unhappy. Personally, I think this is coming now and is good enough, however I feel the CBN is doing this in a wrong way. You are telling people not to withdraw above their limit but they are not providing means for them to do that”, he said.
Furthermore, investigations revealed that despite reports of the CBN’s directive to banks to load their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) with only new notes to ensure that the currency circulates across the country ahead of the January 31, 2023 deadline when the old notes will no longer be legal tender, some ATMs are still dispensing old notes while others have started dispensing new notes.
This has led to calls to extend the deadline to allow the circulation of the new notes but a look at the CBN’s website yesterday showed that the apex bank’s countdown clock is ticking and it is now 20 days left until the deadline which will end by January 31, 2023.
Meanwhile bank customers in the SouthEast especially traders in Aba, Enugu, Nsukka are still groaning that the cash withdrawal limit is negatively impacting their businesses
Daily Sun’s visits to commercial banks in Aba, commercial hub of Abia State; Enugu and Nsukka inEnugu State, witnessed long queues in several banking halls and ATM points while other milled around the premises waiting for the new notes.
In Aba, traders, small and medium scale entrepreneurs and artisans, who utilise majorly cash for payments in their businesses and other commercial activities, were in quandary.
In fact, many customers at various bank branches within the city centre, Ekeoha Shopping Centre, Eziukwu/Cemetery Road Market, as well as the Ngwa Road Market, popularly known as Ahia Ohuru, decried being asked to use alternative paymentchannels to transact their businesses.
Some of them including Chief Collins Ugwuoke, a textile materials dealer, lamented that the situation may lead to them losing some of their customers who were used to paying cash.
It was also discovered that banks were yet to begin to issue out the new N200 notes at their ATMs.
Operators of POS in Aba also complained that the new system will create problems for them and push them out of business.
At the Independence Layout Enugu branch of UBA, many customers stood at the ATM gallery for hours due to the long queue. In the course of their withdrawals, we discovered that the old N1000 notes were still prevalent. A customer might just have new notes of about N2,000 in any N10,000 dispensed by the machines.
Mr. Sunday Ugwuanyi, a trader at Ogige Main market, Nsukka said that the new policy will affect many businesses, especially those operating in rural areas.
Speaking to Daily Sun at one of the commercial banks, he said: “I came to the bank this morning to explain to the branch manager the implication the withdrawal limit will have on mybusiness, but he said that he can’t help me, although he asked me to apply fora waiver and wait for managing directors’ approval.
Bemoaning the development, a POS attendant at Old Motor Park, Nsukka, Ginika Ugwu, said: “Once our daily transaction is limited to a certain amount that means that our income as well will be limited and when you look at the whole thing the business will notbe sustaining again, so, the whole thing has been giving me sleepless night.”
Though, almost all the ATMs monitored by our reporter in Nsukka town were dispensing the old naira notes, a manager in one of the new generation banks along Enugu Road, who pleaded anonymity attributed the situation to limited supply of the new naira notes by the apex bank.
In Ebonyi, the new naira notes sare still scarce as banks in Ebonyi State yesterday commenced implementation of the CBN directive on transaction limits for individuals and corporate bodies .
Daily Sun findings confirmed that all commercial banks commenced full implementation of the directive on Monday, 9th January,2023.
When our correspondent visited the Custumers Care Units of some of the commercial banks in Abakaliki, many customers were seen asking while they were unable to complete some serious financial transactions on Monday.
One of the customers who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said “ I wanted to withdraw about N800,000 yesterday without success. They just told me that I cannot withdraw above N500,000 cash in a week. They said it’s a new policy of the CBN”
On the new naira, investigation showed that the new currency were still scarce in the state.
New Naira notes
In Awka, the Anambra State capital, many ATMs visited by the reporter still dispensed the old naira notes that would soon be phased out. The banks’ ATMs along the Awka – Onitsha Expressway still dispensed old notes.
When our reporter visited the machines, some of the customers there said that they preferred the old notes to the new ones and were not sure they would be able to make use of the new notes.
One of them who didn’t disclose his name expressly dismissed the new notes, saying that everything was wrong with it.
When asked what the wrong things were, he became a bit hostile and continued speaking ill of the new notes without responding to the question.
Two women at the place who looked like civil servants just returning from work supported him, saying that they didn’t like the new notes. The two had just finished withdrawing from the machines and were still arranging themselves before the interaction ensued.
Meanwhile, some of the POS operators checked by the reporter still gave their customers the old notes. Some of them had the new N1000 notes but said that their customers don’t accept them.
SUN NEWS
