From Maurice Okafor, Enugu.
Though no violent reaction against the banking institution has been recorded in any part of Enugu state since the perilous effect of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) current naira re design policy started having drastic effects on Nigerians,but the residents are under groin must especially in the rural areas.
This stems from the fact that the CBN’s initial policy of a maximum withdrawal of twenty thousand naira from ATM or over the counter has remained a mission impossible.
Only few commercial banks in the metropolis rarely paid ten thousand naira on few occasions to a number of customers,before their usual claim of running out of cash would be echoed to weary waiting customers.
Usually, the highest a customer who came early for transactions is between three thousand and five thousand naira, in the adopted policy of rationalisation so that a lot of customers will be favoured before the bank will run of cash.
The scarcity of naira in Enugu metropolis has turned Okpara avenue where many commercial banks have their headquarter and branches into a depot with sea of heads as thousands of people troup to these banks on daily basis,with hope of withdrawing from their deposits lodged in those commercial.
Checks reveals that when withdrawals fell,many who have nothing left resort to patronize the POS agents,who allegedly initially exchanged the new currencies exhorbitantly for the old notes.
The scarcity of naira has degenerated to the extent that most POS agents complain they no longer have cash to dispense to customers and deals more on transfers.
On the positive side most super markets and shops in the metropolis have imbibed the culture of accepting credit transfers from their customers involving huge purchase,thereby turning the dream of a cashless economy into reality.
However dealers in foodstuffs and perishable commodities and buyers are still cut in the web on how to transact sells over increasing scarcity of naira.
Further checks revealed that the rural communities in Enugu state are worst him. Some of the local government areas have no designated commercial banks where their rural dwellers can expect to make transactions and finds it extremely very hard to come to the metropolis early enough to join the cew in any of the commercial banks.
An economic expert who talked with the Reporter on conditions of anonymity,expressed the fear that the rurals will have no other option than to engage themselves in trading by barter.
