Customers preparing for Christmas and
New Year festivities, findings showed, were busy withdrawing cash from
the ATMs to buy food items, dresses, decorations and other things needed
to make the Yuletide an exciting experience.
The economic recession ravaging the
country may not mar the Christmas and New Year experiences of most
Nigerians if long queues seen at the ATM points are anything to go by.
“I need to prepare for the Christmas; I
have come to withdraw some cash for my wife to get some dresses for the
children and us,” a businessman, who identified himself as Kunle Benson,
told our correspondent at a Skye Bank Plc ATM gallery in Ikeja.
Similar stories were told by bank
customers who spoke to our correspondent at the ATM centres in Iyana
Ipaja, Ikotun-Egbe, Ogba, Magodo and Ojodu in Lagos.
“I have been very busy but it is high
time I bought things we need for the Yuletide. I have come to get some
cash to buy food items we will need for the Yuletide,” a trader, Mrs.
Shola Ologunjaye, told our correspondent at a Guaranty Trust Bank Plc’s
ATM gallery in Ojodu, Lagos.
Some customers told our correspondent
they were surprised about the long queues seen at most ATM centres,
saying it was too early to start seeing such queues.
A customer, who identified himself
simply as Johnson, said he had driven from Ogba to Ojodu in search of
ATM galleries with short queues.
“I never knew I could get to this point
and still did not get an ATM with a shorter queue. I wonder where the
people are from. People are queuing up to get cash everywhere,” he said
An ATM officer in one of the commercial
banks, who spoke to our correspondent under the condition of anonymity,
said the situation was made worse by most Nigerians withdrawing cash to
travel to their home towns for the Yuletide.
On why the biting economic recession did
not stop the long queues emerging at the ATM galleries, a professor of
Economics at the University of Uyo, Leo Ukpong, said the impact of the
recession would be felt after the Yuletide, pointing out that most bank
customers were withdrawing cash from the savings they had made for the
Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The don said, “People have savings and
people will normally save towards the Christmas. We will feel the impact
after the Christmas and the New Year,”
However, Ukpong said the ATM queues were also being compounded by poor cash management by the CBN.
He said, “It is not only in Lagos we are
having the long queues. I have seen them in Uyo as well. I asked why
and they said that the CBN would normally print new notes to replace the
old and dirty notes. But recently, they have not been doing much.
Somehow, there is a shortage of notes for the ATMs. People are now
withdrawing cash to travel and do other things to prepare for the
Yuletide. The danger is that this can cause panic in the system. The
CBN’s cash management system needs to do something.”
An economic analyst, Mr. Haruna Okunade,
said the recession was affecting many Nigerians and that not everyone
would experience Yuletide in the manner they used to do.