Deltans, particularly residents of Warri South and Uvwie Local Government areas of Delta State, 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 had failed.
“They (Federal Government) thought they were going to mob 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 at Effurun in Uvwie Local Government Area, Chief Peter Asagba described the trend as shameful.
Asagba who is the Traditional Mayor, Amukpe District in Okpe Kingdom, noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not prepare well 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 the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Uvwie Local Government Area Chapter, Comrade Rose Obi, spoke in the same vein.
She said that commercial banks were no longer working, adding that “the elections have come and gone. Government should do the needful as the situation is badly telling on every body, particularly the masses.”
A former Chairman of Ndigbo Traders Association, Delta Central and South Senatorial districts, Nze Francis Onuora, stated that the buying of naira with naira was the worst economic situation Nigerians ever experienced.
Onuora who is a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Okowa on community development, remarked that the cashless policy had failed because of the persistence poor network services in the country.
On his part, the president of Igbudu Market Traders Association, Comrade Oghenerume Kugbere, complained that the practice had adversely affected trading 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 sold cash to POS operators who in turn sold same to residents at very high charges.
Oghenekevwe called on the relevant authorities to apprehend the petty traders and pump attendants involved in the illicit trade. He also appealed to the CBN to pump in more cash into the economy to assuage the problems Nigerians were facing as a result of the scarcity of naira.
At as the time of filing this report, N10,000 was sold for N3,000 or above by most POS operators in the two local government areas of the state.
