Kaduna Traders Lament Scarcity Of New Naira Notes, Low Patronage

Traders at Abubakar Gumi Market in Kaduna State have lamented the scarcity of the new redesigned naira notes.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP who visited the market yesterday, Hajia Aisha Mohammed, who sells clothing materials, said, “Since yesterday I have not sold anything, some of my customers would like to patronize me but they will always tell me that they don’t have cash at hand.

“Yesterday, I had to borrow money from someone for my transport fare to go back home.”
Another trader in Kantin Kwari Motor Park, Mrs Elizabeth Auta who sells food items also lamented low patronage, saying that people no longer buy things the way they used to.

A buyer in the market, who identifies herself as Mama Blessing said, “I have been in this market since morning to buy things but because I don’t have cash, I couldn’t buy what I wanted”.

“I went to withdraw, some of the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) are not dispensing cash. I don’t know what to do because my children need to eat food when they come back from school,” she said.

On his part, a trader who sells vegetables said, “People are not buying the way they used to buy and my vegetables are beginning to spoil.”

A point of sale (PoS) operator, Mohammed Abdul, also complained about the scarcity of naira notes, saying that it is very difficult to get cash from banks.

He said, “On Monday I was at the ATM before 6am, after spending more than 4 hours there, I couldn’t get cash, I had to go to another ATM”.

They appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure availability of new naira notes in order not to push Nigerians into more suffering.