21st April, 2014
Some traders in Lagos have appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ease their transactions with customers by injecting adequate lower denomination Naira Notes into the system.
The traders said dearth the of lower Naira notes was hampering free flow of business activities.
Ayisat Bello, a stall owner at Ayobo market, said the scarcity of lower denomination Naira notes has become a major problem.
“All I get from my customers are N1000, N500 notes, even when they buy little things like soap and biscuits.
“Getting ‘change’ is a headache because I don’t have enough lower denomination currency notes. My business is really being affected, “she complained.
A grocer at Iyana -Ipaja, Ada Nwachukwu, said she could transact business on several occasions because there was no way of giving customers their balance.
“Honestly, it is painful that I turn down customers because of this problem. Customers bring N1000 to purchase N100 worth of items and you search your purse, only to be seeing higher denomination notes.
“You ask your fellow traders for ‘change’ and they complain of the same problem”, she said.
Nwachukwu urged the government CBN to do something about their predicament by injecting enough lower denomination notes into the system.
In Agege the story was not different. Peculiar Adetu, said she was forced to resort to buying lower denomination notes at the motor park to address the problem.
“I buy lower denomination currency at the Agege motor park so that I don’t have to be running helter-skelter looking for ‘change’ to attend to my customers.
“The idea is working well but at a cost. Passing the cost to the customers will make the items of my competitors cheaper. The customers will go elsewhere to make their purchase. So I bear the extra cost,” she lamented.
A civil servant, Abayomi Taofeek, said he often had problem with ‘change’ when buying household items. He stated the problem occurred often when he boards a commercial vehicle.
“The first thing you hear these conductors say is ‘Enter with your change o’. If you do not have lower denomination note, you stay at the bus stop for a very long time,” he said.