New naira: Customers starved as banks face cash crunch

Customers were, on Thursday, frustrated as banks could not meet their transaction needs due to cash crunch.

Investigation shows that only one out of three or four Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of most banks are dispensing cash. Some customers queued endlessly at the ATMs to withdraw money but got little or nothing.

There is no money in the bank. I am in front of GTBank to withdraw from the ATM but there is no money. Other customers are complaining,” Kolawole Daniel, a businessman, told BusinessDay at Onipanu, Lagos.

At one of the banks in Festac Town, a customer was seen expressing his frustration after staying in the queue for about 35 minutes to withdraw cash from an ATM.

When BusinessDay contacted Uju Ogubunka, president Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), he gave three possible reasons for such a situation.

He said Nigeria was transiting from old currency to new notes and there are not enough of the new naira.

“So, the possibility is that we don’t have enough of the new notes and we are no longer giving out the old notes”, he said.

The second possibility, he said, could be that the ATMs are malfunctioning. “Power problem is an issue in this country. As I am talking to you, I don’t have power supply in my area and I am sure it is like that in many places, if not most places.”

Another issue he raised was that the number of people making use of the period to withdraw cash may have outweighed the kind of services that can be rendered by the ATM.
Read also: Inadequate preparation responsible for circulation hitches of new naira notes – Expert

“Don’t forget that we are coming back from the holiday and people may have exhausted the money in their pockets and so have to rush to the banks to collect money. That kind of pressure could lead to not having enough cash in the bank,” Ogubunka said.

“In my personal opinion, the new naira is not enough. If the deadline for returning the old notes is January 31, 2023 and by now, we don’t have enough of the new naira, it is an issue, ” he said.

He added that the saving grace to the situation is for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to increase the supply of the new naira and that customers should use the electronic means of transactions.

A visit to some banks in Lagos on Thursday revealed that the new naira notes are still not available and the ATMs are still dispensing the old notes.

Aisha Ahmad, CBN’s deputy director in charge of financial system stability had explained that the CBN ordered the printing of 500 million pieces of new naira notes in the first contract, which rolled out on December 15, 2022.