Naira scarcity: Emefiele summons PoS agents over high charges

The Central of Nigeria (CBN) is set to dialogue with Point of Sale (PoS) agents towards reducing high charges on every transaction made by their customers.

But some PoS, agents have argued that bank officials sell cash (both old and new naira notes) to them depending on the amount withdrawn.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Mr Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank Governor said at the weekend, but did not disclose the venue and time for the meeting.

He said: “I am going to be calling a meeting with the banks this evening or by tomorrow, if those charges go to or those charges have been charged through the bank, we are going to have an arrangement with even telcos to see how those charges can actually at this time be stopped.

“Those charges at this time should be stopped. So, if we know whatever you are making that you’re not making because we stopped it, we can collect it somewhere and look for a way to pay you.

“But we don’t want you to continue to create pain on those who want to use alternative channels when they cannot have cash in their pocket.

“We will go into this later this night or even tomorrow, we’re going to call a meeting of both the banks and the mobile networks; at this time nobody should be charged, if you are charged, we will need to know about it.

“But we would want this service to continue to be offered. Whatever it is in terms of volume and number that you have carried out. We will look for a way to pay you your money,” he said.

The redesigned naira notes comprising N200, N500 and N1,000, came into use on December 15, 2022, after they were unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 23, 2022 in Abuja.

The CBN had earlier fixed January 31 as the deadline for the collection of old naira notes, but later extended the time limit to February 10, 2023.

Mr Emefiele had said the extension was to allow Nigerians that had naira legitimately earned and trapped, the opportunity to deposit their money for exchange.

The governor had ordered banks to load their Automated Teller Machines with the new naira notes to ensure Nigerians had access to them.