The Zamfara Government has interfaced with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Gusau, on the possible ways to make the new naira notes available in commercial banks across the state.
This is contained in a statement on Tuesday, in Gusau, by Babangida Zurmi, Director-General Press Affairs to the State Deputy Governor, Sen. Hassan Nasiha.
Zurmi said Nasiha had the interface with the CBN Branch Comptroller, Alhaji Buhari Abbas, during a visit to the apex bank.
Nasiha said that the interface was aimed at providing relief to the citizens of the state from the hardship caused by scarcity of the new naira notes.
He said that the interface was to come up with possible strategies to support commercial banks operating in the state.
This was with a view to relieving the residents from the tension caused by the difficulty in accessing their monies from the banks.
The deputy governor decried the hardship being experienced by the residents, as a result of several hours on long queues in frantic effort to access ATMs.
Nasiha said: ”A situation where one could take all day before making withdrawals for his or her daily domestic needs is uncalled for.”
He called on CBN authorities to as a matter of urgency provide the new naira notes to commercial banks to ease the bedeviling challenge of money circulation.
In his remarks, Abbas thanked the deputy governor and described the visit as a first of its kind to the bank by any state official since the introduction of the new legal tender.
He said that the bank was doing all it could to address the problems and promised that, sooner, cash would be available at the counters and ATMs of the commercial banks with a view to decongesti them.
In a related development, the Deputy Governor has lauded the Gusau branches of the First City Monument (FCMB) and Eco Banks for providing satisfactory services to their customers .
He spoke during an on-the-spot assessment at the banks to assess the situation in the premises of most of the commercial banks with a view to alleviating the suffering of the residents..
Nasiha also decried the nonchalant attitude of Zenith and Guaranty Trust Banks over what he described as ”insensitivity to the suffering of customers.
”This is due to the non availability of money in these banks’ ATMs and their counters, with no explanation passed by the banks’ officials to their customers.”