Banks issue maximum of N5,000 to suffering customers
‘Emefiele sent memos to banks not to pay customers’ Bank managers
By Joseph Ologeh
Nigerian banks are using maximum of N5,000 to customers caught in long queues across the country, but majority of the banks have refused to pay anything as at Friday September 03, findings by Irohinoodua has revealed.
‘I was at Wema Bank today with a cheque of 20,000. I was told I could not get more that 5,000’ Mr Jide Okunola a student told Irohinoodua. Our correspondent also noticed long line of people struggling to collect money from many ATM centres across the country without success.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Mr Godwin Emefiele on Thursday ordered banks to pay maximum of N20,000 to anxious customers who have been denied access to their own funds which the CBN forced them to deposit following the redesign of the country’s currencies. However, at least eight bank managers told Irohinoodua that contrary to the directive given by the apex bank that 20,000 be paid to customers, there is a subsisting memo directing Bank managers not to pay customers.
‘We have a memo from the CBN instructing banks not to pay customers’ a Bank manager who does not want her name in print told Irohinoodua in a state in the North West. She said the order given by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele that Banks should pay minimum of N20,000 to customers is a mere political statement.
‘The banks are helpless. Its not that they don’t have money. The CBN sent memos that the banks should not pay customers. In other to enforce the order, the CBN has refused to supply funds to Nigerian banks’ another manager in Lagos told Irohinoodua. In Kaduna state, one bank manager said the banks do not understand why the CBN is withholding funds meant for the banks adding that the denial is ‘strange.’ He confirmed that the CBN sent memos to banks not to pay customers. ‘It is true. Banks were told not to pay customers. That is why there is so much scarcity. The CBN cannot order banks to pay customers N20,000 when there is not written instructions to do so. The written instruction we have is that banks should not even pay customers at all. Those giving 5,000 are doing it on compassionate grounds.’
The Kaduna State Governor, Nassir El Rufai had accused the CBN Governor of promoting anti-public policies through the denial of cash to the people. He said there is a clique in Aso Rock that is bent on instigating the masses against the ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC) candidate to ensure the party loses the next Presidential election.
