Naira Swap: Banks not dispensing cash in halls, ATM points; EFCC arrest racketeers of Naira notes in Abuja
Naira is now on sale owing to the scarcity of both old and new notes in bank halls and their Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) terminals.
In many cities, Point of Sale (PoS) operators, bureau de change agents and emergency currency hawkers sold old and new notes to desperate Nigerians in need of cash.
Many ATM terminals in Lagos and Abuja, for instance, were empty, while the few that dispensed old and new notes had crowds waiting to make withdrawals, some of which resulted in fisticuffs in the struggle to secure positions in queues.
The situation in the banking halls visited by our reporter was limited access for customers aside from no money to dispense.
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday said it nabbed members of a syndicate of currency racketeers hoarding and trading with redesigned naira notes.
EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said that the arrest happened in separate operations in Zone 4 and the Dei Dei axis of the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday and Monday.
The anti-graft agency said the operation followed intelligence on activities of unscrupulous currency speculators who were exploiting desperate citizens by offering them new naira notes for foreign currencies at below the going rate.
He said the suspects have made useful statements, including a disclosure that they were acting with some unscrupulous officials of Money Deposit Banks.
The commission vowed to extend the operation to all the major commercial centers in the country until all the syndicates involved in the illegal trade are demobilised.
