Three days after a Supreme Court ruling on Friday upholding the validity of previous banknotes till December 2023, the money scarcity Nigerians have skilled since February remains to be ongoing. Many individuals welcomed the Supreme Court judgment as a result of they hoped it might make money instantly out there and cease the queues at financial institution branches. But TechCabal reporters observed queues in any respect main banks throughout Lagos on Monday morning.
A Zenith Bank employees instructed TechCabal, “The banks cannot act on the Supreme Court ruling because the Central Bank, an independent body, controls us. The Central Bank has not directed us to align with the Supreme Court’s decision so business will continue as usual.” The scenario was the identical throughout all of the banks we visited, as industrial banks should not issuing previous notes per the choice of the Supreme Court.
Across Lagos, enterprise house owners additionally proceed to refuse the previous banknotes. Pharmacy house owners and a few petty merchants instructed TechCabal reporters that they might not accumulate previous notes from their prospects as banks wouldn’t settle for them both. Given the money scarcity, individuals have resorted to on-line banking via USSD and financial institution apps, even the seemingly unlikely individuals within the casual sector. Some individuals instructed TechCabal they paid bike males for his or her rides by way of financial institution switch.
However, banks are discovering it tough to scale their applied sciences to accommodate the brand new wave of customers. Complaints about failed transactions are flooding social media, and prospects are trooping to banks to resolve transaction issues. They constituted many of the queues TechCabal met on the banks.
Access Bank prospects at Surulere instructed TechCabal that most individuals who got here to withdraw cash went again residence as the financial institution was neither shelling out banknotes from their ATMs nor over-the-counter. Most of these within the queues had been there to complain to customer support or request ATM playing cards in order that they may make transactions by way of POS brokers as an alternative of via on-line financial institution channels.
Opeyemi, a lady who mentioned she has used solely Access Bank for a couple of decade, instructed TechCabal she was there to get an ATM card she misplaced three years in the past. Since she misplaced her card, she has been utilizing USSD and her financial institution app. Still, due to her frequent troubles with on-line channels, she wished to get an ATM card to transact by way of POS brokers as an alternative.
Despite their elevated transaction fees, POS brokers are unlikely heroes of the scenario. And till banks start to re-issue the previous Naira notes in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment, prospects working away from financial institution issues that take longer days to repair will proceed to flip to them for banking providers.
…. to be continued
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