The unavailability of cash in all the ATM galleries in Asaba since last week has been blamed on the nefarious activities of Point of Sale (PoS) operators.
A banker, who confided in our reporter on condition of anonymity when asked to speak on the development, said there was no cash flow to the banks last week because POS operators went round all the filling stations and other busy selling points to buy off cash with the intention of selling to members of the public at higher rates during the festive period.
That was after they had withdrawn large sums of money from the ATMs well ahead of the Christmas celebration.
He described the situation as disturbing and called on the federal government to come up with a stiff regulation that would checkmate the activities of POS operators in the country.
A drive round the banks in Asaba on Christmas Day revealed that all the ATM galleries were empty as there was no cash to dispense, thereby leaving customers to the mercy of the POS operators.
As at this morning, a cash withdrawal of N5,000 attracted a service charge of 200 naira, as against the usual 100 naira, while one would need to pay as much as 800 to withdraw N20,000.
There are indications that the charge would increase over the public holidays as the banker revealed that the cash situation in the banks might not improve in the remaining working days of the week.
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