By Njadvara Musa (Damaturu) and Samson Kukwa-Yanor (Makurdi)
Yobe State has ordered its Microfinance Bank (MfB) to open branches in all the 17 local councils. Governor Mai Mala Buni said the new branches would take banking services to the hinterlands.
The Director General, Press and Media Affairs to the Governor, Mamman Mohammed, disclosed, yesterday, in Damaturu that lack of banks in the 13 local councils had become a major problem to be addressed, especially as it concerns access to the new bills.
“The cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has posed a lot of challenges to the people,” he said, adding that the scarcity of naira notes crippled trade and commerce in the various markets in the state.
Noting that most of the local councils do not have financial institutions to access the new notes, he lamented that many people had to travel long distances to conduct financial transactions to meet their daily needs.
Despite the governor’s pleas to commercial banks to open their branches in the affected councils, there had been no response. He added: “As a government, we have looked inwards for solutions that can rescue our people from the scarcity of new naira notes.”He, therefore, expressed the state government’s commitment to support the establishment of MfB branches across the state.
MEANWHILE, the CBN has extended its sensitisation on the new monetary policy to the National Youth Corps (NYSC) members in Benue State. The Director, Financial Market and Team Lead in Benue, Dr. Angela Sere-Ejembi, said the apex bank was at the NYSC orientation camp to facilitate the swap of old notes with new ones.
Sere-Ejembi, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Monetary Policy Department, Dr. Victor Oboh, explained that the CBN targeted only youth corps members, who were still in the orientation camps, to ensure that they are not left out since their movement was restricted.
She further explained that the visit was also to sensitise the corps members on the cashless policy and to enable them withdraw cash.
The corps members were encouraged to download their bank applications in order not to depend on cash anymore, as Nigeria is going to implement the cashless policy. The state coordinator, NYSC, Abe Ashumate, expressed appreciation to the CBN for ensuring that corps members, who were still in the orientation camps, were also carried along in the new naira policy.
Source: The Guardian
