By Etido Okon
The current crisis of scarcity of cash being witnessed across the nooks and crannies of the country has greeted students of the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) who are affected by cash shortage in the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) machines and withdrawal limit in the two banks in the Calabar campus.
Some of the students say affects their school fees payment.
The campus has two commercial banks on the school premises – CRUTECH Microfinance bank and Heritage bank. Amongst these two banks, only Heritage has a functional ATM.
Grumbling and frustrated at the ATM point due to the poor service and long queues, they complain, most times what the machine dispenses is not near what is required to pay fees and other financial needs.
These students who are given school fees via bank transfer by their parents or sponsors have to look for various bank accounts of either colleagues or friends to transfer cash into and get their ATM cards to enable them to withdraw according to the withdrawal limits of each commercial bank. But, in the long and crawling queues, should a student want to withdraw from more than one card, it is usually met with fellow students’ antagonism.
The undergraduates further complained that the ripple effect of the scarcity is negatively impacting their academics.
The Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) has called for calm from Nigerians, saying that the current transaction glitches affecting the currency swap policy would soon be resolved.
Rasheed Bolarinwa, the association President said commercial banks are working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resolve the scarcity.
He said attacks on bank facilities and staff are not the best approach to resolving the quagmire.
“Vandalizing banks and attacking bankers is not right. The banking public should know that the banks cannot hoard money when they have it in their vault since they are also in business.”
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