Scarcity of the new Naira notes has worsened following the activities of touts. Consequently, depositors seeking to withdraw the redesigned legal tender are now facing serious problems as the touts have continued to invade commercial banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to disrupt financial transactions.

Report claims that their target is usually to arrive at the ATM as early as possible, pick numbers, create long queues, and sell their slots to impatient customers on the line.

Since a lot of customers, especially Point of Sales operators want to withdraw more than N20,000 daily limit set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) using different debit cards, they buy off the slot of the touts for N500-N1,500 depending on the position on the queue.

With this development, the situation of genuine ATM users looking for cash has worsened.

Daily Sun reports that many customers languished in long queues for hours in search of new notes.

According to a media consultant, Joe Abraham: “What the touts are doing is what you see when vital commodities are scarce. People take advantage of it.

“One of the touts said he got to a bank in Kuje at 4 am on Monday to ‘take number’ usually given by the bank’s security personnel.

“They take the first 25 slots and wait for customers to stroll in by 7 am. Impatient ones buy the slot for N1,500. It’s a cool business for them. Before you know it, they mop up the money in the ATM. It’s crazy really,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the CBN and security agencies have expanded their sting operations to ensure banks comply with the proper supply and distribution of the new notes.

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