Normalcy gradually returns as Banks increase cash payout to customers

Investigations have revealed that the long queues and massive crowds that characterised the cash dispensary points in the last two and half months have noticeably been reducing sharply as banks have increased cash payout to customers.

This followed the sustained cash evacuation from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Deposit Money Banks since Friday last week.

Visits to several banks in some major cities showed that most of the banks’ branches had enough cash to meet customers’ withdrawal needs.

Visits to four banks on Broad Street on Lagos Island showed that all the banks allowed customers to withdraw as much as N200,000, a departure from the situation last week when customers could not withdraw more than N5,000 in most cases.

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FirstBank branches paid N10,000 from the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) to both customers and non-customers while United Bank of Africa, UBA paid N100,000 over the counter and N20,000 in ATMs to customers and N10,000 to non-customers.

However, a visit to Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB, revealed that the bank only paid N15,000 to customers over the counter with a withdrawal slip.

Meanwhile, some Point of Sale, PoS, agents in the Lagos Island area had set the maximum withdrawal limit to N5,000 per customer.

It was gathered that the majority of those who throng banks in the capital city were there to resolve unsuccessful transactions that characterised the industry at the peak of the cash crisis.

As normalcy returned, transporters and technicians in the capital city have begun rejecting transfer as means of payment, especially where the amount involved is considered meagre.