Some banks in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State experienced violent reactions from customers as scarcity of new naira notes continued.
A bank (name withheld) at Challenge Area of the city that could not produce new naira notes for its customers was invaded and violence broke out. Policemen from nearby Felele Division had to be drafted in.
When PMParrot got to the scene, we were informed that no arrests were made.
Said an eye-witness “Nobody was arrested. The policemen just dislodged the crowd and advised the bank to shut down for the day.
It was, however, later confirmed that the bank had shut down its services by 1pm on the fateful Wednesday.
Banking halls across various commercial banks in Lagos, Oyo Osun, Ekiti, and other parts of the country witnessed minimal activity as frustrated customers resorted to alternative means of cash withdrawal following the scarcity of naira notes in the banks.
Checks by correspondents revealed that while most banking halls were empty due to paucity of funds in bank vaults, large crowds had formed outside some of the few banks that were rumoured to be preparing to load their Automated Teller Machines.
At First Bank Plc branch along Ogunnusi road in Lagos, there were a few customers arguing with bank officials who had insisted that the branch had run out of cash.
The story was similar at Ecobank, Zenith Bank, GTCO and Access Bank, all located in close proximity to each other along Ogunnusi road.
However, at Union Bank Plc, also located within the same axis, there was a sizable crowd of commuters jostling through the queue hoping that the bank would load its ATM.
One of our correspondents then went further down the road inbound to Ojodu Grammar School, visiting UBA and Access Bank.
At the United Bank for Africa, the ATM did not dispense cash nor were any payments made over the counter.
A bank official, who spoke with our correspondent said the bank had been restricted to paying denominations lower than N200 notes due to a CBN directive.
When our correspondent attempted to make a withdrawal to collect the lower denominations, he was told that there was no money available, not even a thousand naira.
At Access Bank in the same area, there was no form of over-the-counter payments, while the ATMs were not dispensing.
A commuter, Emmanuel Collins, who spoke with our correspondent at Access Bank adjacent Ojodu Grammar School, said he had just come from the banking hall of his bank (UBA).
He had pleaded to be paid any denomination at their disposal.
He said, “I’ve been to my bank. Since yesterday, they don’t have any cash. They said they don’t have N1000 and N500 notes. I asked them to pay me, even though it’s N50 notes, but they didn’t have.”
Meanwhile, The PUNCH also observed that many customers of microfinance banks operating in Osun State on Wednesday threatened to storm the streets in protest against the lack of cash for withdrawal.
In some of the microfinance banks visited in Osogbo, many officials of the banks, were not on seat, as many customers waited endlessly to withdraw from their accounts.
Some of the customers claimed to be salary earners, who often get their monthly salaries through their accounts domiciled in microfinance banks.
The customers while speaking to our correspondent during visits to Olubasiri Microfinance, Ibuaje Microfinance and Osogbo Microfinance banks, all located within the Osogbo metropolis, threatened to embark on a protest if the situation persisted.
But an official of a microfinance bank in Osogbo, who spoke under condition said the refusal of the Central Bank of Nigeria to include microfinance banks in its plan for the replacement of old naira notes with new ones was responsible for the collapse of operations of the banks.
When contacted for a reaction, the Chairman of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, Osun State chapter, Mr Tunde Lawal, confirmed the collapse in operations of many of the banks which he blamed on a lack of cash to pay customers.
He, however, referred our correspondent to the national leadership of the group for further comment.
Also, a middle-aged woman begged bank officials in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Wednesday to save her from dying.
The bank customer had approached the cashiers at the Opopogboro branch of First Bank to withdraw N9,000 cash on the counter but was turned back that the maximum she could withdraw was N2,000.
All her entreaties with the female cashier to assist her to get the N9,000 cash proved abortive as the bank official insisted that was the instruction that bank customers had been complying with.
This was as many bank customers, who queued up at the ATM points in the different banks in the state capital, which were dispensing a maximum of N20,000 groaned, saying they left their businesses and other important matters to spend their valuable time queueing.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele with additional reports from punchng.com
