Scarcity of Cash Makes Life Difficult For Residents of Ebonyi and Plateau States

The scarcity of cash and difficulty being experienced in the attempt to access some money in most leading commercial banks in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital in Southeast Nigeria, is a major concern to bank customers who are now calling on concerned authorities to urgently intervene. SYMFONI checks in some commercial banks in Abakaliki as early as 9:00 am on Thursday showed that some commercial banks have no cash to dispense to their weary customers.

Their Automated Teller Machines (ATM) are dry of cash. At the same time, some banks opened only one of their ATMs to dispense cash to agitated customers.

Two distressed customers, Charity Aloh and Ugochukwu Nwagbo, who could not find cash in any of the ATMs they visited, expressed regrets over the development, which they said has lasted a week. They also complain about the frustrations they suffer begging banks to fund their ATMs and reduce the difficulty they now suffer to access their cash.

They wondered how the economy of the state was supposed to grow when people spent valuable time expecting to access their money at the banks. According to the duo, the development is causing more frustrations as the yuletide sets in.

At the time of filling this report, the bank authorities could not be reached for comments.

Plateau state is not left out of the Naira scarcity, as cash withdrawal has become a major challenge at most banks.

However, banking services like cash withdrawals are going well through POS operators. Residents who shared their experiences believe that the December deadline earlier issued by the federal government formed the basis for the panic by traders, which made them not deposit money in the banks. They are, therefore, calling on the federal government to take urgent steps to mitigate the return of cash scarcity, especially now that the festive period has begun.