By Francis Akinnodi

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Out of frustration suffered recently,  many Nigerians who are still smarting from the agony they went through over cash scarcity are now keeping their money at homes rather than take it to the banks.

Some of them are keeping the naira notes they collected from customers in anticipation of opportunity to sell them  as they did when cash was very scarce in the country.

Many of them have also shifted to fintechs, like Opay and Palmpay, and so would prefer to remain and deal with e-payment options than the conventional banks who were not there for them during the cash crisis.

A mechanic in Akure, Victor Olajide said he would never take his money to the bank again.

Lamenting his frustration during the cash crunch, he said: “I received money from my customers through my bank to buy motor parts, and when I needed to get the money at the market, I paid extra cash, up to 30 percent, to get the money.

“At the end of the day, I did that work at a loss because my customer felt it was my problem.

 He said I did not need to withdraw cash to buy parts, that instead I should have transferred to the people I was buying the parts from.”

When he was asked why he did not transfer the money via USSD or a bank app, he said: “I can’t transfer with my phone.

“I would prefer that customers give me cash than what I suffered to get the cash they sent to me,” he added. “For me, I don’t have confidence in government and leaders of this country again.”

Olawale Tope sells food stuff at a major market in Akure. He puts aside the new naira notes and gives out old notes to customers who came to buy food.

When asked by The Hope why he was stockpiling the new notes, he said: “You don’t know that this scarcity would come again. I don’t want what happened to me the last time to happen again.”

He believes there could be scarcity of naira notes again when the old notes are phased out of circulation later this year.

A managing consultant, Olalusi Johnson noted that the only solution to the scarcity of cash is for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and deposit money banks to rise up to the challenge to make cash available through the banks.

According to him, it’s only when people are able to get cash from banks that they will stop stockpilling cash at homes and patronising Point of Sale operators and traders who are selling money at premium.

“It’s unfortunate that people take advantage of every situation to unleash hardship on other people, regretting that this is the society we find ourselves”, Olalusi said.

He also challenged the CBN and the law enforcement agents to make some people  scapegoats in situations like this so that people can learn to do things the right way.