NIGERIA CASH SCARCITY
Nigerian bank officials responsible for cash scarcity.
Continuing with the report from yesterday on Cash scarcity,
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission about a week ago, arrested an operations manager of a leading commercial bank in Abuja Central Area for refusing to load the Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, of the bank despite having N29 million of the redesigned Naira notes in the branch’s vaults. Before he was whisked away for further questioning, the operatives ordered the loading of all the ATMs and the payment of the stipulated amount across the counter to the delight of the distraught customers who had spent hours in queues without getting the new notes. This discovery, which indicates a sabotage of the government’s monetary policy by some banks, was made by the EFCC in continuation of the ongoing surveillance and visit to banks across the country to access their vaults and verify whether they were deliberately refusing to dispense the redesigned Naira notes.
More than five bank branches were covered from then by the operatives in Abuja. Similar exercises were ongoing in zonal commands across the country. A statement by the EFCC Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said monitoring of banks and arrest of recalcitrant officials would continue until normalcy is restored to the banking system. The EFCC asked Nigerians finding it difficult to access their funds at any bank or suspect any foul play to contact the commission for immediate intervention. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has arrested two bank officials and seven other Point of Sale (POS) operators in Abuja and Osun State over suspected naira racketeering.
A statement by the ICPC spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, said on Friday, that the commission arrested a Branch Service Head of Stanbic IBTC Bank, whose name was not discolsed, at the bank’s branch in Deidei, a suburb of Abuja. The ICPC said the bank official arrested in Abuja was detained over the bank’s alleged refusal to upload cash into the branch’s Automated Teller Machines (ATM) even when it was available and people were lining up at the ATMs. “When the ICPC monitoring team stormed the bank at about 1:30 p.m. to ensure compliance, and demanded an explanation as to why all the ATMs were not dispensing cash, it was informed by the branch’s Head of Operations that the bank just got delivery of the cash.
“However, facts available to the ICPC operatives indicated that the branch took delivery of the cash around 11:58 a.m. and either willfully or maliciously refused to feed the ATMs with the cash,” the statement said. In a related development, the statement said its compliance team also arrested the Operation Manager of FCMB branch in Osogbo, Osun State capital. The ICPC said it observed at the branch that some ATMs were loaded with cash with their wrappers un-removed, thus preventing the cash from being dispensed.
EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO is head of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA said,
“The hurriedly put up cash swap by the Central Bank of Nigeria at the eleventh hour shows that the apex bank has seen that its deadline is not feasible. Why is CBN so insensitive, irresponsible and arrogant? 90% of Nigerians haven’t even seen the redesignedN200, N500, N1,000 notes yet the CBN is using military fiat to invalidate the old notes that are still being dispensed by banks with only a week to the so-called deadline? The CBN is apparently confused.”
He further buttressed
“… Citizens are unable to access their little cash whereas politicians are actually buying up the few notes that are printed and distributed by the incompetent and grossly inefficient CBN and the Security and Minting Company headed by the brother of the Wife of the President. Nassir Elrufai alleged a governor has just bought N500 million of the redesigned notes. Elrufai is the Governor of Kaduna State and a staunch promoter of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
If ONWUBIKO believes politicians are behind accumulating so much cash to themselves and not letting the citizens of the country Nigeria get any at all or a very minute minimum, then or goes further to point out that cbn are not exactly responsible for the lack of disbursement of cash, but the bank officials cooperating with such politicians.. this just goes a long way to show the corruption in Africa.. really disheartening. I’m another video showing several bundles of new Naira notes hidden in a room at Sterling Bank PLC, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State has been trending on social media.
The bank was said to have refused to dispense it through its five Automated Teller Machines for about two weeks. A background voice, who identified himself simply as Owoeye, a Deputy Director with the Central Bank of Nigeria, stated that the bank officials claimed the ATMs were yet to be configured. Owoeye said: “They have N6 million, which they collected from the Central Bank of the nation Nigeria for about two weeks but never disbursed any.
“They said they are yet to configure the ATM.
“I don’t know why that is so.
“I brought their attention to the penalty clause of N1 million per day because they have five ATMs
“So, they don’t have any reason for keeping this money.
“The Zonal Service Manager, Kunle Onipede, promised that too late 10am the next day, because I promised them that I will be here by 10am and I want to see the machine dispensing this money.
Yesterday we wondered who are they keeping these money for?
But today we wonder if they see these politicians better than their fellow citizens?
