Despite Emefiele’s claim of N1tn in circulation, Nigerians continue experiencing scarcity

Speaking on cash flow since the March 3 Supreme Court judgment, Emefiele said: The CBN will need to re-access again to know whether the currency in circulation has attained an optimal level so as to be able to put in place measures that will ensure that we don’t go back to what we had before, where people were keeping a lot of money outside the banking system for their own benefit.

“The MPC has noted that the naira redesign and cash withdrawal limit policies have resulted in a sizeable reduction in Currency-Outside-Banks, indicating an expected improvement in the potency of monetary policy tools.”

He said the “online payment on the Intech sector has actually improved quite a lot and we are happy that rather than relying on just only the banks, we have many other channels through which online payment services can be done so that Nigerians don’t suffer because we are in insisting that we have to go cashless.”

He apologised to Nigerians for the pains they go through while trying to carry out electronic transactions across several bank channels.

But notwithstanding Emefiele’s claim that more cash had been pumped into circulation, businesses, consumers and banks customers have demanded immediate end to the ongoing naira scarcity.

As far as they are concerned, the impact of the cash injected by the CBN is yet to be felt in the banking system.

According to small business operators, the cash crunch has limited their transaction volume and ability to meet the financial needs both to their customers and families.

Mary Okon, a Lagos-based entrepreneur said the cash crunch has reduced her volume of sales.

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She said: “Before now, I made at least N35, 000 daily sales. Today, recording N10, 000 daily sales has become a big challenge. I plead with the CBN to release more cash to the economy.”

Although banks continued the payment of both old and new naira notes to customers, the volume of the notes in circulation has not met the demand for cash.

Many banks within the Lagos metropolis did not dispense cash to their customers either over the counter (OTC) or through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

“There were long queues of bank customers at most ATM points that had some cash to dispense. One bank branch in Marina Lagos, could only dispense N10,000 to customers with the bank’s ATM card. Customers of other banks got N5,000,” a customer narrated.

In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, agonies of residents arising from the persisting cash crunch worsened yesterday.

Banks in the Gateway City ran out of cash – both the new and old naira notes of 200, 500 and 1,000 denominations.

At Omida, Lalulu Street (Okelewo), Panseke, Jide Jones, Sapon, Ita – Eko, Kuto and the Old Secretariat area, investigation  showed that they only opened to their surging customers to lodge complaints over truncated transactions and debit issues that occurred since the redesigned new naira notes policy took effect.

Those who came for cash withdrawals returned home with disappointments. There were neither OTC payments, nor from the ATMs.

The few ATM points that were dispensing cash stopped at 11am. A security guard in one of the banks cited mechanical faults and cash shortage as reasons.