Curfew: Confusion As Banks Shut In Lagos, Ogun, FCT

By Fola James

Many Nigerians woke up this morning to the shock that their banks are shut for business.

This has led to frustration by those who wanted to withdraw cash, to stock up, following curfew imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Lagos, Ogun and FCT as part of the measures to stop the spread of the corona virus pandemic.

The president had directed in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday that all businesses be shut for two weeks, effective (today) Monday, March 30 by 11 pm.

Buhari however said the order would not affect those on essential services.

“This order does not apply to hospitals and all related medical establishments as well as organizations in healthcare-related manufacturing and distribution,” Buhari said.

Those in this category, he stated are “commercial establishments such as; food processing, distribution and retail companies; petroleum distribution and retail entities, power generation, transmission and distribution companies; and private security companies are also exempted.”

According to him” Although these establishments are exempted, access will be restricted and monitored.”

Obviously, banks are not allowed to work within this period.

But the complaint in Lagos is that people were not given enough time to prepare for the curfew.

Many of those that were caught unawares by the emergency order are now trying to make last minute withdrawals and transfers, as the case may be, particularly customers who have not been making use of the online platforms, only to find out that some banks did not open for business today.

For instance, Fidelity Bank Plc has shut many of its branches in the two states and FCT after the presidential order.

Sources in the bank said other online platforms will be available for customers who may want to conduct emergency transactions.

“The management is therefore encouraging customers to make use of the virtual platforms to conduct transactions,” the source said.

But the same cannot be said of other banks.

The maagzine observed that UBA, GT Bank, First Bank, Access and others were opened for business in some parts of Lagos on Monday.

But some employees of these banks told the magazine that, their services will be skeletal, to allow customers make last minute withdrawals and perform other transactions in preparation for the two weeks stay-at-home order by the federal government.

”We will be closing early today. The customers are many but we want to make sure that we attend to everybody before 2 pm, so that those that failed to make withdrawals by the week end could do so before the end of today,” one Access Bank employee said.

He said the ATMs will be available during the period, except that it will be difficult for customers to use them due to restriction on movement.