Cash scarcity : POS operators ration payments as bank ATMs run out of cash

 

 

Point of Sales (POS) operators in parts of Lagos have been rationing payments to clients in the past few days, thus compounding the problems of bank customers who found many of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) not dispensing cash.

Disappointed clients who spoke with News Express over the weekend lamented their inability to access their savings at a time of critical need.

One of them, a house wife in the Ajuwon area, said: “The only POS operator I saw turned down my request to withdraw N10,000. He said he maximum I could get was N5,000 and for the usual N200 commission. When I asked the reason, the man said he was short on cash as he could to get money from the bank.

“This is frustrating as the ATM is not dispensing cash.”

Another respondent, a journalist in Ogba, lamented that the maximum he could withdraw from the POS was only N3,000.

“The POS operator insisted that N3,000 was the maximum I could get, and for the same N200 commission. I had to plead before he agreed to take N150 commission,” he said.

A banker who spoke with News Express blamed the situation on the precarious security situation in the state as a result of the #EndSARS violence and consequent looting spree.

“Even before the curfew, some banks were no longer promptly restocking the ATMs with cash due to concern for the safety of their staff,” he said.

The source expressed the hope that the situation would improve with the gradual return of peace and the relaxation of the 24-hour curfew imposed on the state by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu – which cleared the way for businesses to resume operations from today, Monday, October 26, 2020.