Barely three days before the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) to phase out the old Naira notes, POS agents in Kaduna have begun to take advantage of new Naira notes’ scarcity to demand extra charges on every transaction made by their customers.
While lamenting over exorbitant charges on every transaction they make at POS points, Kaduna residents are now calling on the CBN to extend the deadline for at least one week.
Already, some traders within the state have stopped accepting the old Naira notes since Thursday, citing difficulty to deposit them in the banks as their reasons.
At one of the POS stands visited by the Guardian to monitor the mode of transaction and figure out how much is charged on each deposit and withdrawal, this reporter confirmed that the POS agents have increased charges on every transaction as a result of the scarcity of the new note.
For instance, for every withdrawal of new anything from N1000 to N10,000 notes, N200 is charged to the POS agents instead of the fixed N100 charges.
A POS agent identified as Aminu said “you can’t blame us for demanding extra charges because the sudden deadline given by the government is too short and there is a surge in deposits of old notes.” .
However, one of the Kaduna residents, Shehu Usman who registered displeasure towards the extra charges, described it as an outright act of wickedness.
Usman said ” it is a sad situation as banks and CBN deadline cause stampede, POS agents are equally capitalizing on this to charge us exorbitantly.
When contacted, to confirm whether CBN authorized extra charges at the POS point, an official of the apex bank in Kaduna, Muktar Maigamo who spoke with the Guardian, said the “CBN never authorized such. We are aware of that illicit act and are going around to ensure compliance and anyone found taking advantage of people will be penalized. ”
