Cash Crunch? Customers Groan As Scarcity Of Cash Hits Osogbo

DESPITE the Supreme Court ruling that the old Naira denominations of N200, N500 and N1,000 notes continue to co-exist with the new notes indefinitely, there is noticeable shortage of cash in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

OSUN DEFENDER observed that the scarcity which commenced about three weeks ago has led to an increase in the transaction charges of Point Of Sales operators.

Also, most commercial banks now load only one Automated Teller Machine at a time for their customers to withdraw. Some of the banks also set their withdrawal limit both on counter and at Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) to between N10,000 and N20,000.

OSUN DEFENDER visited some commercial banks around Ogo-Oluwa area of Osogbo on Wednesday and Thursday. It was observed that while some of the bank’s ATMs were not dispensing, others had just an ATM working with crowd of customers lining up to withdraw.

The banks have also capped their daily withdrawal to give more people access to the limited available resources. 

A customer who spoke with the medium lamented that the scarcity of cash had affected him, saying being unable to withdraw particularly in cases of emergency is not ideal. 

He stated, “I had an emergency on Saturday, so I rushed to the nearest bank to use ATM. To my surprise, none of the ATMs was dispensing.

“I am aware that the banks have capped daily withdrawal again, but my problem is, why are the ATMs not dispensing? I find it hard to understand why I have to carry about an ATM card and yet I can’t use it when I want to.”

A POS operator, Olabisi Ademola, disclosed that she had increased her charges by 100 percent and now charges N200 on a N5,000 transaction, adding that getting cash has been difficult.

Ademola said she resorted to buying cash from traders and petrol station attendants to meet up with the needs of her customers.

“There is nothing I can do at this period than to increase the charges because getting cash is very difficult now. I had to buy cash from traders and petrol station attendants to meet up”, she stated.