Market News

•  Taiwo Hassan

With banks closed for business transactions till Wednesday, many Point of Sales (PoS) operators ran out of cash to give to Nigerians during the Sallah celebration as scarcity of naira hit the country’s economy.

Specifically, the few ones among them that have cash to dispense increased transaction commission by 100 percent, as many of the country’s bank’ ATMs were emptied of cash, thus, throwing many Nigerians into despair during the Sallah.

Investigation conducted by New Telegraph reporter in Lagos on Sallah day shew that many PoS shops were closed for businesses as they complained that they didn’t see cash to dispense to people.

Some of them that spoke to the New Telegraph in Lagos disclosed that some bank staffers were selling cash to them in open places, charging them exorbitant prices for buying naira, alleging that this cash were meant for the ATMs but they decided to make out sharp business with it.

Also, they stated that National Union of Roads Transport Workers (NURTW) workers, otherwise known as Agbero boys, were also involved in the sales of naira during the Sallah period. However, some of them added that some business people also engaged in the fast business, especially food merchants who have cash at hands and sold to them.

A visit to First Bank of Nigeria branch on Ajao Road, Isolo, Lagos, saw the security men saying that there was no presence of monies in the ATMs as they were emptied. This scenario is also same in the other banks, including GTbank, Zenith Bank, Wema Bank, and others. A PoS operator, Adeyemi Tejuoso, told New Telegraph that he bought about N100, 000 from a business man and paid about N10,000.

He, however charged N200 as commission for N5,000, N300 for N10,000 respectively. Another PoS operator, Nnamdi Nwabughiogu, said: “We have been out of business and not being able to dispense money to our customers since most of the ATMs at the banks are out of monies and the banks still on public holidays. So, it has been difficult to get money. I only opened my shop down, but no cash to dispense to customers.

Kayode Ajayi explained: “The new style is that most business owners don’t want to take their monies to the banking halls any longer and prefer to do give it to PoS operators and make their profits from it. You can see now that the banks are not happy as they are only seeing figures in people’s accounts via transfer, but no cash deposit from people again.

Chukwuemeka Ekpedom said: “I have to approached those Agbero boys to give me money and I paid them commission in order for me to operate on Sallah day and that is why I hiked my transaction commission by 100 per cent, because there are no cash in the banks anymore as the banks preferred to sell their monies for PoS agents than loading it at the PoS.”