The Lead Director of Centre for Social Justice ( CSJ), Eze Onyekpere, has accused the CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, of lying to Nigerians about the cause of the cash scarcity.
Onyekpere, who is also a lawyer and fiscal governance expert, said it is unfair that Nigerians should be subjected to persistent hardship by a government that should care for the people.
Just a few days to Christmas, Nigerians are finding it more difficult to access cash from their banks, reminiscent of what happened at the same period last year following the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The scarcity which began a few weeks ago over fears that the CBN may not extend the life of the old naira notes beyond December 31 2023 as earlier planned, has persisted despite a court order that the old naira notes should exist side by side with the new notes and repeated assurances by the CBN that the old notes will remain legal tender until further notice.
Recently at the World Bank, Nigeria Development Update, December 2023 edition, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, said that the prevailing cash scarcity was a result of the poor implementation of the naira redesign policy, which had resulted in hoarding by some Nigerians.
It was observed that some of the first tier commercial banks that two weeks ago pegged their cash withdrawal limit at N50,000 per transaction, have reduced it to as low as just N5,000.
A customer inside one of the banking halls shouted at the cashier, “What am I going to do with N5,000?”
The branch manager of the bank was also overheard instructing his staff not to pay cash to some cooperative societies that were there to withdraw cash for disbursement to their members as the saving period has ended. He told them to do transfers to their members rather than giving them cash.
It was also observed that the automated teller machines (ATM) terminals have remained empty, forcing customers to enter the banking halls.
On their part, the PoS operators have jacked up their charges. N5000 withdrawal now attracts N200, while N10,000 attracts N400.
Onyekpere, said the question of what happened to the cash should be answered by the CBN Governor because he knows what he did.
The human rights lawyer who spoke in an interview said the cash has been there until the CBN withdrew it in the name of fighting inflation. He said it is not true that Nigerians are hoarding the cash because they have no reason to do so.
According to him, “There is a court ruling that the old naira notes should continue to be in circulation beyond December 31 2023, so why should anybody want to hoard the cash. The CBN Governor knows that he is not telling Nigerians the truth. He should come out clean and explain to Nigerians what happened to the cash.”