Customers suffer in long queues for insufficient cash

Customers on Friday queued under the sun waiting to withdraw cash from the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) as banks pay insufficient amounts.

Our correspondents visited some banks, in Lagos and found that banks which collected cash on Thursday evening following new directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commenced payment on Friday morning.

Access Bank stopped paying at 11am, Fidelity and Zenith bank were paying till 12.15pm.

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“I want to see the customers care because I want to close my account. This suffering is too much, “one customer said.

The CBN had asked deposit money banks to withdraw the old notes deposit in their branches and dispense to customers to stimulate the economy.

The CBN’s new directive came after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) directed all workers to picket all branch offices of the CBN nationwide starting next week over the current naira scarcity across the country.

Investigation showed that as of the close of work on Thursday, two banks had collected cash from the CBN but small volume. One of the banks collected N20 million to be distributed across its branches.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.