Zamfara govt warns CBN, commercial banks over new Naira notes

The Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Hassan Muhammad Gusau, has expressed dissatisfaction over the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other commercial banks in the state when he paid them an unscheduled visit.

Sen Gusau said that the state government was not happy over the hardship faced by the residents of the state.

He said residents were spending several hours in long queues in order to access their hard earned money at Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, saying that the situation always took a whole day before withdrawals are made.

He called on the apex bank authorities in the state to, as a matter of urgency, release enough new Naira notes to commercial banks to ease the hardships of the citizens.

Responding, the Comptroller of the CBN, Gusau Branch, Alhaji Buhari Abbas, while receiving the Deputy Governor, said the visit was the first of its kind to the bank by a high-level officer in the state since the introduction of new notes due to the hardship being faced by the residents.

Alhaji Abbas said “the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing all that is possible to address the problems. Cash would be made available at counters and ATM machines of the commercial banks with a view to decongest the crowd of customers at the banks.”

Also at some commercial banks, Gusau expressed dismay over the long queues he witnessed, seeing how customers were being treated by some banks in Gusau, the state capital.

He charged the banks in question to comply with the CBN’s directives by providing the money in their ATMs and counters for the domestic use of their customers.

He added that the state government would take drastic measures against any commercial bank willing to capitalize on the current challenges of shortage of new Naira notes to institute artificial suffering on the people of the state.