Currency racketeering in Akwa Ibom State has continued within the week even with the Supreme Court order restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, from implementing the February 10 deadline on the phasing out old naira banknotes.
Newsmen who went round the State, observed that traders, petrol station managers, supermarket owners, operators of Point of Sales, and bank officials have continued to exploit the masses as the scarcity of cash remained unabated.
An Akwa Ibom resident, who refused to disclose his name, narrated how he left his house as early as 4am to the ATM point of a known bank without withdrawing money as the ATM was empty.
It was gathered that traders in major markets in the State, such as Itam, Akpan Andem, Nyong Essien/Etuk and others, would instead of depositing cash into the bank would sell it to POS operators at 10 percent.
An indigene of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area, who identified himself as Kingsley, lamented how a POS attendant insisted on collecting a commission of twenty-two thousand naira from the sum of two hundred thousand naira he withdrew to buy a few items in the market for his father’s burial on Friday.
He explained that he had tried to avoid paying that huge commission to the POS attendants by standing in the long queues in the banks, but that at the end of the day, he was able to get five thousand naira only.
Also, the cash scarcity is taking a toll on the general work productivity as an ICT Expert and Entrepreneur, Maxwell Akpan disclosed that the uncertainty, fears and concerns from the development is significantly impacting on his staff’s mental health and their general wellbeing which have affected their productivity.
