…in New Year rush
…ATMs run dry
…GSM networks under pressure
…Video calls support holiday mood
…middlemen profiteer
…transport fares rise 100 percent
Nigerians who receive foreign exchange from their relations and friends in the diaspora are engaged in frenetic efforts to bypass the banks in a bid to receive premium rates in the exchange process.
This is as one US dollar exchanges for N448, on the official market as at Saturday December 31 (2022) as against N720 on the parallel market, a difference of N272 and down N10.00 from N730 on Thursday December29.
The British pound sterling exchanged at one pound to N539.21 at the official market and one to N890 on the parallel market on Friday.
Foreign exchange recipients in Nigeria frequently complain that when foreign currency is paid into their local accounts, the banks come up with a plethora of ploys to avoid paying them like sum in like currency and try to arm twist them into exchanging the money to naira at official exchange rates which are significantly lower than parallel market rates as clarified above.
So in this holiday travel season, foreign-based Nigerians are bypassing this bottleneck by remitting foreign exchange physically, through family and friends coming home to Nigeria from abroad, for onward delivery where possible, rather than through the banks.
Mercy Ogundare, a retiree, reports that when her daughter remitted dollars to her from the US recently through her Nigeria bank account, she spent two weeks in a futile effort to collect the money in foreign exchange, until she got exhausted and collected it in naira at the official rate, which is much lower that the parallel market rate.
The Nigerian diaspora worldwide is responsible for the largest financial remittances into sub-Saharan Africa, with over $17 billion in 2020 according to World Bank data.
DROP CALLS
In a related development, there have also been reports of an increase in drop calls (calls which fail to connect) as well as poor call quality on the country’s mobile networks, particularly in some of the big cities, the holiday destinations and the highways in between.
The locations include Lagos, Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, Ore, Benin, Warri, Sapele, Asaba, Onitsha, Enugu, Owerri and Aba, Abuja, Lokoja, Kaduna and Kano, among others.
Sources inside the networks say that such developments are usually due to milling festival populations causing temporary overloads on network infrastructure.
VIDEO CALLS
Meanwhile, many Nigerians who could not travel are taking solace in making voice and more especially, video calls to loved ones around the country and around the world and enjoying the facility of virtual visual interactions, our reporter gathered.
TRANSPORT COST
A second wave of holiday travelers started taking to the roads around Nigeria on Thursday December 29 aiming to get to their destinations before or on January 1, 2023, New Year’s Day. This saw commercial road transport cost spiraling upwards again by as much as 100 percent after falling by about 30 percent on Wednesday December 28 which saw a significant lull in road travel.
At the Libra Motors terminal in Okota, Lagos, on Thursday December 29, charges per seat for 14-seater commercial air conditioned buses were listed as N26,000 to Owerri, the Imo State capital, N25,000 to Onitsha; N25,000 to Asaba and N21,000 to Benin. The prices were in the same range at motor parks in Ojota, Jibowu, Mile-Two, Agboju and Ikotun areas, among others.
Road transport fares from Lagos to Makurdi were in the range of N18, 000 for 14-seater buses without air conditioning.
Fifty-seater buses without air conditioning, operating from Lagos to Kano and Kaduna charged N27,000.
ATMs
Reports reaching us indicate a significant percentage of Automated Teller Machines of the various banks across the country running out of cash in the course of the Christmas and New Year holidays, with customers turning to Point of Sale PoS0 machine operators to send and receive money while paying premium charges. PoS operators typically charge N100 per N5,000 of transaction.
For the better part of the days between Christmas Day, which was Sunday December 25, into December 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30, the ATM machines of First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Fidelity Bank, Keystone Bank, Zenith Bank and First City Monument Bank , located on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road in Lagos, were not dispensing cash. Customers were however able to make financial transfers on the said machines. Customers were likewise able to conduct financial transactions from their mobile phone portals.
