Point of Sale (PoS) operators have accused corrupt bank officials of selling old and new naira notes to them.

Some operators who spoke in Abuja on Friday, said they paid exorbitant amounts to withdraw monies, hence the reason why they surcharge customers.

They also appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sanction banks involved in the act.

An operator along Nyanya-NNPC road, who preferred anonymity, said she paid the extra charges to keep her business going.

“I pay very high amount to get this money that I am giving to customers. If you look around here, other operators did not open.

“The woman (bank official) that I collect money from even increased the money today because she said that cash is scarce and she kept it for me because I called her earlier to do so.

“I pay according to the amount I collect. Sometimes, I pay as high as N5,000 for N50,000 to N70,000 that I collect from her.

“I charge N500 for every N5,000 withdrawn and N1000 for every N10000 withdrawn for me to recover what I spent to collect the money,” she said.

Nnedi Ikonye, another operator along Lugbe, said she paid N3,000 for withdrawing N65,000 in a bank.

“I was asked to pay N3,000 for the N65,000 that I withdrew from a bank and that is because I know someone in that bank.

“That is just a token compared to what my colleagues are paying. They pay more because they don’t know people in the bank,” she said.

Alphonsus Idah, another PoS operator at Mararaba market, urged the CBN to step up actions against banks to stop the untold hardship faced by citizens.

“My anger in all this is that the CBN might be aware but has refused to sanction banks.

“When they start their sanction from one bank, others will take corrections and all these will stop.

“I commend CBN for the policy of paying cash in the banking hall now. This will help too,” he said.

Another operator who also pleaded anonymity alleged that corrupt bank officials usually withdraw monies for their clients in ATMs.

“In some banks, ATM will not work even though they are loaded with cash.

“During close of work, the bankers will turn the machine on and queue to withdraw from the machine.

“The annoying thing is that one banker can hold like 10 different ATM cards and will withdraw from all of them. This is frustrating,” the operator said.

A bank customer who was seen at one of the PoS centres, lamented that the charges were exorbitant.

The CBN, in a bid to address long queues at ATMs, had directed banks to immediately commence payment of newly designed notes over the counter.

The directive said the amount to be paid would not exceed N20,000.

(NAN)