Counting Naira notes
* Accuse petty traders and fuel station attendants of complicity
* Say practice is a signal of failed cashless policy
By Ambrose Ologide, Warri
Deltans , particularly residents of Warri South and Uvwie Local Government Areas have bemoaned the practice of buying naira with naira.
The President General of Uvwie General Improvement Union (UGIU) Chief Abovi Hope Erute noted that the practice was an indication that the Nigeria monetary policy has failed.
” They ( Federal Government ) thought they are going to mop up monies with it . But they forgot the Nigerian factor ; which is corruption ” he added .
The MD / CEO of the prestigious Casa De Pedro Hotels, Refinery Hotels, Effurun Uvwie Local Government Area, Chief Peter Asagba described the trend as shameful.
Asagba who is the Traditional Mayor of Amukpe District in Okpe Kingdom noted that the Central Bank did not prepare for the cashless policy .
The highly esteemed Okpe chief reasoned that the CBN should have made monies available in the commercial banks before implementing the policy.
The Chairman of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS )Uvwie Local Government Area Chapter Comrade (Mrs) Rose Obi spoke in the same vein .
She painfully noted that commercial banks were not working.
” The elections have come and gone. Government should do the needful . The situation is badly telling on every body particularly the masses .” she lamented.
A former Chairman of Ndigbo Traders Association, Delta Central and South Senatorial Districts, Nze Francis Onuora stated that the buying of naira with cash was the worst economic situation Nigerians have ever experienced.
Onuora who is a Senior Special Assistant SSA to Governor Okowa on Community Development remarked that the cashless policy has failed because of the persistent poor net work.
On his part, the President of Igbudu Market Traders Association, Comrade Oghenerume Kugbere complained bitterly that the practice had adversely affected trade in the market.
A Warri based youth activist, Comrade Joe Oghenekevwe accused petty traders and pump attendants in filling stations of feeding fat from the illicit trade.
He alleged that petty traders and pump attendants sell cash to POS operators who in turn sell same to residents at very high price to despirate residents.
Oghenekevwe then called on the authorities concerned to apprehend the petty traders and pump attendants involved in the illicit trade in the interim.
He also appealed to the Central Bank to pump in cash to the economy to assuage the problems Nigerians are facing as a result of the scarcity of naira.
At as the time of filing this report 10 thousand naira was sold for 3 thousand naira and above by most POS operators in the two local government areas
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