Chaos looms as road transport workers reject old Naira notes, threaten strike action
By Zion Rufus
As fuel stations and banks begin to reject old naira notes amidst the scarcity of new Naira notes in Nigeria, despite the Supreme Court order extending the deadline for old Naira notes to remain in circulation, some road transport workers in Lagos have declared a strike action.
Fielding interviews at 7UP/Tollgate bus stop, bus drivers, popularly known as Danfo drivers revealed to MARKETING EDGE that they have been given a directive to commence strike action if fuel stations and commercial banks continue to reject the old notes.
A bus driver who identified himself as Abdulgafar Makinde explained that he had stopped at a filling station to fill up his tank, however the fuel attendants refused to attend to him because he was bearing the old naira notes.
“This is brewing chaos. It is the masses that will suffer it if things continue like this. Maruwa(Tricycles) are not collecting old notes, fuel stations are not collecting old notes, banks are not collecting them either. The ones that are collecting it are not even opening,” Makinde lamented.
Saheed Ifetomiwa who plies the CMS-Ikeja axis also told MARKETING EDGE that people in some rural communities in Ketu-Mile12 have agreed that they will keep spending the old naira notes within their communities and “leave the banks to themselves”.
He said: “Market traders can’t sell, buyers cannot buy, because they don’t have money to spend. How do you encourage people to open bank accounts when the ones that have bank accounts don’t have access to their money? We will keep spending our old notes, even if it is to resort to trade by barter.”
The purchase of necessary goods and services have also been on the decline owing to the widespread complaint of massive online transaction failures and refusal of business owners to sell via POS as a result of countless failed and reversed transactions.
A commuter who wanted to board a bus going to Mowe-Ibafo tearfully disclosed that she had been standing at the bus-stop for nearly two hours.
Decrying the current cash agony, the lady said: “Last night i needed to get dinner for my children, the supermarket refused to take old notes from me. They said the CBN deadline has affected them as well as banks refusing to collect the bulk of old cash they tried to deposit. To do transfers, bank networks are bad. Maybe this is the time for the respective government institutions to give a sit-home order.”
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