On Wednesday, some Ibadan residents expressed worries over the continued lack of cash at some ATM points and the limit on cash withdrawal in the banking halls.

The situation has led to a surge in the patronage of point of sales (PoS) operators by residents of Ibadan.

A PoS operator, Kunle Fadipe, said many people could no longer get cash from ATM points, so they patronised the PoS operators.

He said those going into the banking halls also had access to limited cash of between N20,000 and N50,000.

“What I can see is that banks are reducing the amount of cash in circulation because some people no longer take their money to banks as they used to do.

“As PoS operators, we also patronise filling stations to get cash from them and the boys there are making huge money from this.

“They collect N1,500 on every N100,000 we collect from them,” he said.

Mr Fadipe said PoS operators now had more patronage, especially on weekends.

A food vendor, Olubisi Adegoke, said she usually patronised PoS operators. 

She added that many of them had been helpful in supplying cash for her business, with as low as N200 charges on every transaction.

“I do not go to ATM points anymore. I do my transactions with PoS operators and it has been working for me,” Ms Adegoke said.

Another resident, Yinka Oluwaseun, said some banks had sealed their ATM machines to deter customers from using it.

“I moved from one ATM point to another, and none was working. In fact, you will see ATM points deserted by people because they are not working.

“I don’t know why banks are not loading their ATMs with cash again but someone told me they have network issues and that they said it would be resolved in three weeks,” Mr Oluwaseun said.

He said the PoS operator he patronised around UI collected N450 on the N13,000 he withdrew from his account.

“Bank transfers have also not been going through in some banks except when you do such transactions early in the morning or very late at night,” he said.

Another resident, Olaniyi Olawuyi, said he noticed that his bank had placed a limit on the amount of cash customers could withdraw.

“We have been limited to N40,000 cash on the counter,” he said, adding that he had been able to do transfers without any hitch.

A bank official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained that huge amounts of cash used to come to banks from filling stations before.

The bank official, however, said it appeared some PoS operators had partnered the filling stations to get money from them, hence the cash shortage in the banks.

According to the official, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also not been bringing cash to banks, stressing that this is why most of the cash from banks is old and dirty. 

(NAN)