Nigerians are suffering as a result of dry ATMs at banks and rising fees at POS operators
Many Nigerians were left frustrated on Monday as cash, including old and new naira notes were unavailable from banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in most parts of the country.
Bank customers in need of small amounts of cash to cover transportation costs and other urgent expenses were unable to withdraw cash from ATMs, and POS operators took advantage of the situation to raise their service fees.
In fact, not only were there long queues, videos of bank customers wrestling and exchanging blows at an ATM stand trended on social media.
Some Nigerians reported their experiences using POS for withdrawal of the new naira notes on social media platforms like nairaland, a major online community listed among the 10 most visited websites in Nigeria by Alexa.com.
According to a user by the name of tolexy007, PoS operators in his region charge N250 for withdrawals of new notes between N1,000 and N5,000 and N100 for withdrawals of old notes within the same range.
According to MaDaRa01, PoS providers have increased prices in his location as a result of the limited supply of the new notes.
He said that a PoS operator charged him N1,000 for N10,000 in new notes. While BBM claimed that a PoS operator in his neighborhood cost him N600 for N10,000.
The bankers committee, meantime, gave banks the order on Monday to cease paying clients with old naira notes other than those in the denominations of N100, N50, N20, N10, and N5.
A bank staff in the Ketu area of Lagos who spoke under condition of anonymity lamented that they do not have the new naira notes, and have desisted from putting old notes into the ATMs, as par CBN directive, hence Nigerians are witnessing a shortage of cash at the banks.
