
Jan 15 (Lagos) - At last the Central Bank of Nigeria took some action to restore its credibility in the eyes of the public by fining nine commercial banks for not dispensing cash through their ATM's.
Although the fine is a little slap on their wrists at least it shows to the public that CBN still has intention to fix a broken system of "PAY FOR CASH" which has crept into the Nigerian financial system over the past 2-3 years and created an unbelievable cash note scarcity due to alleged corrupt practices between Banks and POS operators.
A POS operator in Nigeria is a person or more likely a relative or a friend of a Bank manager who sits outside or nearby a bank branch with a hand held device to debit customer accounts and supply NAIRA cash notes in exchange for fees as high as 2%. This happens in most urban areas of the Country and no remote areas where these services actually make sense.
So the allegation is that bank managers have their own people doing this business and bank mangers get a cut from supplying this cash to them. The average Nigerian is the biggest loser in this scheme. Not only are Nigerians dealing with inflation and devaluation - they are also dealing with this scam.
How can it be that there are no cash notes in Banks and ATM's while the POS operators sitting outside the Bank and ATM's have as much cash as you need as long as you
PAY FOR CASH.
Below is the list of Banks that have been fined a total of N 1.35 billion.
Fidelity Bank Plc,
First Bank Plc,
Keystone Bank Plc,
Union Bank Plc,
Globus Bank Plc,
Providus Bank Plc,
Zenith Bank Plc,
United Bank for Africa Plc, and
Sterling Bank Plc.

KUDOS to the CBN for taking some action on this. We hope more fines will follow that actually hurt the banks deeply so they are forced to end this corrupt system that is devastating the finances of Nigerians.
Imagine paying 2% of your income to access NAIRA cash notes, you own currency. Those find of fees are charged by international money transfer Organizations that made foreign currency available in another Country but here we got this massive scam destroying the Nigerian financial system.