Residents of Makurdi, the Benue state capital and its environs have expressed frustration over the scarcity of cash in most parts of the state.
Findings indicated that for several weeks most Automated Teller Machines, ATMS, at the banks have not been dispensing cash to desperate customers who crowd the banks daily for cash, while the few that had cash were dispensing betwern N20,000 and N70,000 with service fee of N35 for every 5,000.
Meanwhile customers who besiege the banking halls were not allowed withdraws more than N50,000 over the counter.
The development has forced residents to patronise Point Of Sale, POS, operators who now charge between N400 and N500 for every N10,000 withdrawal.
Though none of the bank officials in town offered to explain the reason for the cash scarcity in the state, an insider who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged that banks were constrained to ration the cash at their disposal because of the drop in the allocation they get from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, branch office in Makurdi.
He said: “We cannot go out of our way to refuse to dispense cash to the public. Of what benefit will that be to us as a bank.
“The fact of the matter is that for sometime now the CBN has reduced the volume of cash they ration to banks daily.
“So that is why you see that our ATMs are always empty because when we load the little cash we have people that come very early in the morning withdraw what is available and those that come latter will have nothing left. So it is not our fault.
