•95 Percent Of Mobile Money Agents Don’t Have Cash To Work Again – Chairman

he goes to Osogbo everyday to get cash from his friends and rela ves who are traders. He said: “There is no gain in the POS business again. This cashless policy is killing the business. We have no cash again to give to the people. I go to Osogbo everyday to get cash from my people there, at the end of the day, I will be returning with N60,000 or N70,000. It has never exceeded that. Now tell me, how do you want to survive such situaon?

“People should just stop blaming POS operators for their current charges on transac on. In my own case, how do I get my transport fare and make profit if I do not increase the charges?

Some people are even selling money to us. It is that bad. “Our own case is even worse; we don’t have banks at all here. The few filling sta ons in the town are not making sales. We don’t have anywhere to get cash.

“Go round Ila, you will see that almost all the POS kiosks and containers are closed. The operators have shut down. Few of us that are opera ng are just roughing it, hoping that things will change. POS business is now in a mess. will return to the society.”

Agents with cash for transac on, because these agents are the one supplying cash to the hinterlands.

Pe y Traders Lament

Low Patronage she refused because she did not have a bank account.

95

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER, the Chairman, Associa on of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, State of Osun chapter, Comrade Alli Akeem, lamented that the POS business was on the verge of total collapse.

Akeem said: “The cash crunch has badly hit our business. The Central Bank of Nigeria does not get this policy right because it does not carry necessary segment of the financial society along. Most of our agents are not opera ng now because they have no access to cash.

“The CBN needs to come up with plan on how to be providing the Associa on of Mobile Money and Bank

“As am I talking to you, 95 per cents of agents in Osun are not opera ng due to the cash crunch. We don’t have access to cash and that has crippled our business. The people are lamen ng too.

“However, we are holding mee ngs with CBN and we hope that our deliberaons will be posi ve at the end of the day.”

Speaking on the high charges on transac ons by few POS operators, Akeem said: “Our agents are not the one over-charging the people. Those over charging people are money merchants. We have condemned that prac ce.

“Some people have access to cash and they sell it to those you called POS operators. Those are the persons making it difficult for their fellow men and women. The solu on is that CBN should allow us to have access to cash and normalcy

The scarcity of cash has taken away smiles from the face of pe y traders whose daily ac vi es revolved around exchange of money.

Foodstuffs sellers, hawkers and other traders whose capitals are bellow N50,000 have lamented that the cashless policy has reduced their sale as their customers no longer have cash to patronize them again.

Some of the pe y traders at Oluode, Igbonna, OjaOba, Sasa, Akindeko and Otaefun markets in Osogbo, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to release enough money to the circula on, saying that their trades and livelihood are being threatened.

A tomato seller at Otaefun, Mrs Bamiwo Akinrinade, said her daily sales of between N8,000 and N11,000 have reduced to less than N5,000.

According to her, some of her customers wanted to pay through transfer which