Panic withdrawal seen around the Nigerian banks on Monday morning following the restriction of movement announced by President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday night.
Investigations by BusinessDay showed that long queues are growing around the banks across Lagos State.
A customer who tried to withdraw cash dollars from his domiciliary account could not do so as GTBank said there were no dollars.
This was despite information by various commercial banks informing their customers that financial transactions would still continue in their online banking channel.
“Mehn, I got to withdraw as much as I can so I don’t get stranded,” a young man named Emeka, said while waiting on a long queue to withdraw in one of the Zenith Bank branches around Okota area, Lagos.
“I am aware banks said their online channels would still continue, but I do not trust that as often time like this when you visit the ATM, the response you might get is “out of service or unable to dispense cash”,” Emeka said.
President Buhari had in his speech yesterday, announced a lockdown of business activities in Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun.
The move according to the president is aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus which has so far infected 111 people, including one death, according to data from the Nigerian Centre of Disease Control (NCDC).
Nigerians in reaction to the news, rushed to the banks since the financial service sector was not among those exempted from the lockdown.
BusinessDay visited more than five banks in Lagos and witnessed a multitude of people to the extent that many of the banks’ premises were not enough to accommodate them.
