Naira crisis: Banks count losses, threaten to shut down operations

Following attacks on infrastructures by irate customers over the lingering Naira scarcity in the country, the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), has threatened to shut down banks’ operations.

Recall that angry customers had taken to the streets to protest the inability to make withdrawal and in the process destroyed bank facilities, including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and staff’s vehicles.

President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Oluwole Olusoji, on Thursday, pegged at N5 billion losses suffered by banks following attacks on their facilities by naira scarcity protesters.

Olusoji, who stated this at a news conference in Lagos, said several buildings and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) had been destroyed by the protesters.

He added that many bank workers also suffered personal losses in the attacks.

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He said the workers might be forced to withdraw their services if the attacks continue in the coming days.

The ASSBIFI president said 17 bank branches across Nigeria had come under attacks since last week and urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make more naira notes available to the lenders.

Olusoji said: “Notwithstanding the insecurity due to the destruction of business premises within the banking industry, and the impact on insurance organizations, we remain committed to going the extra mile in providing service to our customers in safe and secure environments.

“However, we value the lives of our members and colleagues and will not put them at any further risk. We have, therefore, put them on alert and shall instruct them without further warning to immediately stay away from their branches if these attacks on our members and facilities continue until such a time that they can be guaranteed their personal safety and the security of their workplaces by the relevant authorities.

“We call on the public to desist from threatening or attacking our members, or destroying our properties as they will be only proverbially cutting their noses to spite their faces. We can only give what we have been provided with and nothing more.”