New Naira: UNIZIK staff, students groan over long queue, disappointments

0

By Theresa Akubue

This is not the best of times for staff and students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, following the continued scarcity of naira notes for daily transactions and businesses.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) late last year introduced newly-designed N200, N500, and N1,000 notes and gave a January 31st deadline to phase out the old notes. The deadline was later extended by ten days following the outcry that greeted the policy.

www.odogwublog.com reports that despite the extension, the new notes are scarce and Nigerians are finding it difficult to even get the old ones.

The scarcity of both the new and old naira notes has continued to cause unbelievably long queues at the ATM, as some traders no longer accept the old naira notes during their transactions with customers.

ALSO READ  Awka Millennium City And Digitalisation Of Education In Anambra State

At UNIZIK recently, some staff and students even those doing business within the school environment were seen struggling at the automated Teller Machine (ATM) to withdraw their hard earned money, which they had rushed to deposit because of the order from CBN. 

Lamenting her predicament, one of the customers who preferred to be known as Theresa, said she arrived at the ATM around 9am to meet a large crowd and upon going into the bank premises, she was told that no withdrawal slips are available, leaving her with no choice but to join a long stretched queue that ended up taking her whole day.

ALSO READ  Breaking: 12 corps members in Anambra marry themselves

A student, David Nwakama, said” I was on the queue yesterday. It was only one machine at Zenith bank that was working out of all the banks in UNIZIK. Worst was that the ATM abruptly stopped dispensing cash right in front of me, while other banks’ ATM barely functioned.”

Mrs Kosiso Anyawu, who happened to be a non-teaching staff, was given a seat because of how heavily pregnant she is,  while she joined the queue . In her words, “the twenty thousand naira is not enough to cater for my basic needs as I’m feeding two stomachs and the unbelievably long queue makes it more unbearable.”

ALSO READ  NIMASA VISITS UNIZIK IN ANTICIPATION OF COMMENCEMENT OF MARITIME INSTITUTE

On the side of a staff member named Mrs Chinenye Obi, she arrived at the bank as at 7am to withdraw money for her trip at noon, but after she has spent over 3 hours on the queue, she was left with no choice that to cancel the trip.

What are your thoughts?

Discover more from Odogwu Blog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading