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By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in pursuance of one of its policies of cash swap, on Friday dispensed new naira notes, to several bank customers, through some accredited Point of Sale (POS) operators in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.

The  POS operators were assembled, at the palace of Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, Ake, Abeokuta, where several bank customers, were allowed to withdraw N10,000 each.

The exercise, which attracted, several members of the public, served as relief for several bank customers.

The exercise, which was described as CBN’s “experimental grassroots banking exercise”, was also targeted at providing the needed succour for the suffering members of the public in the State who had in the past two weeks had to spend several hours at the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) terminals without success.

Speaking with newsmen, Deputy Director, CBN’s Banks Supervision Department, Kayode Makinde explained that the apex bank in the country was highly disturbed by the sharp practices by some P.O.S. operators, who resorted to charging exorbitant amounts as commission on every withdrawal made by banks customers.

Emphasizing that the situation was unacceptable to CBN, Makinde said the apex bank’s Ake “experimental grassroot banking exercise” was to ensure that the 40 per cent component of the CBN’s directive is really adhere to. 

“What we intend to achieve is to ensure that the ugly trend and sharp practices of some P.O.S. operators are brought under control. A situation whereby the P.O.S. operators will get the new Naira notes from their commercial banks through the CBN and resort to charging exorbitant amounts as the commission is not going to be tolerated”. 

“We are trying to ensure that the challenges faced by members of the public are addressed by bringing customers down here to enable them to access their accounts and they are given cash through the Point Of Sales (P.O.S) terminals”. 

“Because we are not comfortable with the stories we have been hearing regarding how the P.O.S operators have been exploiting members of the public. So, we are trying to tackle the situation by bringing them here and ensuring that appropriate disbursement is carried out under our supervision”.

“CBN said 40 percent of whatever amount of the new Naira notes they get must be given to the shared agents, who are the P.O.S. operators participating in this scheme, while 30 per cent is disbursed across the counter and the remaining 30 percent be uploaded in their respective Automated Teller Machines (ATM) terminals”. 

“So we are here this afternoon to ensure that the 40 per cent component of the CBN’s directive is really adhere to. The banks selected some P.O.S operating agents and those agents are mobilized to the palace to disburse the new Naira notes to members of the public”. 

“So, by this arrangement, the ugly stories of extortion by some P.O.S. operators who get the new Naira notes from banks and were charging exorbitant amounts as commissions is permanently taken care of”.

“We have found out that some P.O.S. operators were prior till now, charge like N1,000 over every withdrawal of N5,000 and so on and so forth. That situation is unacceptable to us. That is the reason we have decided to gather some of them here and under our supervision, we ensure that they don’t charge more than the normal N200 for every N10,000 withdrawn by a customer”. 

“So, essentially we are here in fulfilment of that particular sharing arrangement of the 40, 30 and 30 per cent of the agents’ component, across the counter and the ATM withdrawals”.

Earlier in his statement, the head of the team in Ogun State and CBN’s Deputy Director from the Research Department, Abuja, Dr Adeniyi Olatunde Adenuga explained that the programme was meant to “alleviate the suffering of the people of Abeokuta in particular” before proceeding further to other parts of the country.

“The essence of today’s programme in Alake’s palace in Abeokuta is for us to alleviate the suffering of the people of Abeokuta. This is one of the policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that has to do with the cash swap where you make a direct impact on the people and each person is entitled to take the maximum of N10,000”.