Lagosians groan living cashless, unable to access basic necessities
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Normally upbeat and resourceful Lagosians are barely scraping through existence at the moment, not being able to access hard cash, the most acceptable medium of exchange for goods and services in Nigeria’s most expensive state.
Lagos is also one of most costly cities to live in the world, with multiple taxes and levies on business, spilling on to consumers. Everything costs money, even to urinate.
Lagos residents are lamenting their challenges in buying food items due to naira scarcity imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that withdrew N2 trillion old notes from circulation and printed N300 billion new ones, which are not enough.
The residents below shared their experiences with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend.
Martha Eneziakpo
Eneziakpo, a mother and an accountant, expressed displeasure for having to pay extra charges for mobile transfers for items bought at local markets.
She said it is not easy getting things, with traders refusing transfers while the ones willing to accept transfers add extra costs.
“For example, some traders add as high as N500 on any item paid for mobile transfers. They claim it is bank charges, imagine getting a product of N3,000 for N3,500.
“Presently, I make do with what I have already in the house and patronise supermarkets more as they operate with Point of Sale (PoS), just to avoid unlawful charges from some of our local traders,” she told NAN, as reported by Vanguard.
Lilian Udodi
“Past relationship with vendors make it easy for me to purchase items via mobile transfers.
“So, as far as buying foodstuffs from vendors at this time, I must say I have not faced much difficulty.
“This is mainly because the vendors are used to me and they say I am credit worthy.
“They allow me to transfer my payments because they trust me but the issue is with the bank network. So, you try to transfer and it hangs or declines, that is a problem.
“I solely depend on transfers to buy food items, my vendors receive transfers once I tell them that is the only option I have.”
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Queen Edet
“The scarcity of naira notes has really affected the masses because getting food items is difficult.
“The traders are not always willing to collect transfers because of the issues that have been happening with our banks’ e-channels, where money sent is seen hours later.
“The only option is to buy naira at a premium, it’s the sad reality and the government really needs to come to our aid.
“Naira scarcity has really affected the quantity of food items I buy in the market.
“The sale of naira is detrimental to citizens, any bank caught directly selling should be sanctioned. The PoS operators are reselling, they sell because they were sold to.
“The old naira notes should still be in circulation for at least extra one month whilst the new ones are being regulated to prepare people.”
Linda Imediegwu
“Dependence on mobile transfer is the only option to buy food items due to naira scarcity.
“Before naira scarcity, I had a lot of cash but I had to pay it into the bank following the deadline of the use of the old notes.
“Currently, it is hard to find cash to buy food items and now I have to resort to doing transfers to those that accept it.
“However, traders insist we pay extra charges for every item paid for via mobile transfers. It has not been easy these past few days.”