By Helen Ovbiagele
I was bewildered the other week when an attendant at a diesel outfit in Ikoyi, Lagos, refused to serve me because I didn’t have an ATM card.

“Excuse me, are you saying that you no longer accept cash for the sale of diesel here?” I asked.

“Yes, madam.  Those were the instructions we were given.  Ma, look over there.  Those are customers waiting for their cards to be processed for the amount of diesel they want, before we serve them.”

I looked and indeed saw some customers waiting patiently with their cards in their hands, while the staff who was attending to them, was struggling with a machine, perhaps because of the novelty of the exercise.

“So, madam, you can come park over here while you take your ATM card to our staff with the machine. I want to serve this customer who’s paid.”

“Hold on a minute, please.  I don’t own an ATM card, neither do I have credit cards.  Does that mean that I can’t buy diesel here?”

“Ah, ma, you don’t have an ATM card?” he asked, scratching his head in disbelief.

“No, I don’t.”

“Ah, sorry ma, that’s only the condition that people can buy diesel here.  We don’t accept cash.”

I wanted to protest that it isn’t every Nigerian that possesses an ATM card or credit cards, and it isn’t a compulsory material for buying and selling anywhere in the world, not even in the western world   that  invented these facilities.

Also, since the outfit is located near a waterside where fishing boats are moored, I wanted to find out if the fishermen who usually come there with jerrycans to buy diesel for their engines  must have ATM cards before they’re served.

But the attendant was busy serving customers whose cards had been processed, and I didn’t want to be a nuisance, so, I had to leave to go buy diesel at another fuel outfit.

Now, I understand the need to sanitize and modernize buying and selling in this country so that we can align with the sophisticated societies of the world, but are we not carrying things a bit too far when an outfit insists that without an ATM card you cannot purchase fuel at their stations?

A few years ago, there was a huge outcry from some citizens when some highbrow shops in Ikoyi and Victoria Island began to demand that their customers should pay for goods in foreign currencies.

We couldn’t understand why any organization here should reject our own currency when it is doing business here.  Thank God, those affected backtracked and began to accept payment in naira.

I’m quite sure that diesel outfit has very sound reasons for no longer accepting cash from customers, but is it in the interest of  the masses, many of whom do not have ATM cards; either because they feel they do not need them, or, because they don’t trust banks enough to put their money there, or, they just don’t want to pay for what they purchase with the plastic cards.

Not everyone is comfortable with using credit cards, or benefit in any way from their use.  We’re told that it is safer for your life and for your money, to use credit cards.  That’s not true.  Apart from the fact that cards get misplaced/get lost/get left in the ATM machine, etc., since the introduction of the ATM cards, hoodlums, I understand, now demand for them, along with your mobile phones and money.

A colleague at the Vanguard said her ATM card never left her possession, yet someone was able to withdraw money from her account from different cashpoints in Lagos, the same day, to the tune of almost half a million naira!

Far exceeding the ceiling of the amount that should be withdrawn in one day.  Till date, her old generation bank refuses to give her a refund, saying it isn’t liable, when there’s the possibility  that it could  have been an inside job/collaboration.

The case is in court, she says.  So much for cashless being safe for us.  That said, ATM/credit cards do have their uses.  It’s easier than money to carry around, and it ensures that you don’t suffer the embarrassment of  not being able to pay for goods/services because you’ve left your purse behind at home.

However, since rightly, there’s no law insisting that every citizen must have ATM cards, should any retailer have the right to refuse to sell goods to us because we don’t have an ATM card?

I think paying with an ATM card should be an option.  That means you may pay with it, or pay cash.  This should be clearly displayed in public places so that we’re aware, and can decide whether to do business with  that outfit or go elsewhere.

Or, it could be stated that those making purchases from a certain amount of money, say fifty thousand naira, should pay with credit cards.  Certainly not small time buyers like many of us.  We shouldn’t be denied service.   Fancy a situation where you badly need diesel (it could even be a matter of life and death, if medical services are involved), and you race down to that outlet, and you’re told that you have to pay with an ATM card!  Isn’t that an infringement on one’s right to buy and pay with money?  Maybe the experts can enlighten us here.

Credit cards are widely used in western countries, yes, but so is cash.  You’re never refused sale/service because you don’t have a credit card.  Possessing one does put you in good stead when you want to purchase things on credit, because it gives you a certain amount of credibility as details about you can easily be traced through it.

But for good management of money, financial experts do advise those who are on the lower echelon who can’t stay out of debt, not to use credit cards and make their financial situation worse.  They are advised to use cash so that their spending can be controlled and they can cut their coat according to their cloth.

Back to having an ATM card; though it has become a symbol of sophistication in our country, it isn’t for all of us, and not everyone wants it.

It would be interesting to find out the percentage of our population that actually have at least one.  What about people in the rural areas?  When they come to town would they be denied sale/service because they don’t own one?

I think we should avoid having policies which work against the masses, especially the poor/ the uneducated.

The government should step in and see that no-one suffers any discrimination/disadvantage for not owning an ATM card.