NEW CURRENCY PALAVA!
*NEW CURRENCY PALAVA*
“oga, good afternoon, drop me for that T-junction for yonder”
“Ok, enter, na 200 naira e be”
“Haba, oga, no be 100 Naira we dey take go there? Na you even carry me yesterday sef”
“Ah, you no know wetin dey sup for we country now? Dem don change currency o”
“How e take affect me?!” I exclaimed, “why e go be 200 Naira?”
“Kai! No be me be Buhari walahi… ask am if you see am”
And with that, he zoomed off angrily.
The funny part is, just before the fuel scarcity, the same distance used to be 50 Naira. When the scarcity started and fuel stations changed their pump prices to 350/liter, we “understood” the transporters and immediately adjusted to their own prices. So imagine my surprise when they decided to use the excuse of “New currency” to inflate the price again. Worse still we are expected to make payments with the new currency which is obviously not available.
I won't reiterate the long queues at ATMs or the fact that at present, people start queuing up at the banks once it's 5 am. By 7 am the tally number one will receive may have gotten to 250 and by 8 am which is the normal business opening hour the multitudes at the bank may have become uncountable.
To compound, the problem is the service downtimes at POS sites after purchase. I still have two transactions where the POS declined but my account was debited. But that one is business for another day.
Not the mention the new practice of inflated service charge for every withdrawal. More than 300% increase in the charge.
While I may be ranting today, I choose comfort in the idea that this will soon be a thing of the past and we can either translate seamlessly to cashless transactions based on the non-availability of the currencies or that after the deadlines, when the currencies have ceased becoming a legal tender the CBN will then push out sufficient currencies into the market. But till then, what we need to do is patiently watch and wait.
ba the waiting be the problem
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