Cash crunch has hit Lokoja, the Kogi capital, crippling most businesses and making life miserable for residents.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who monitored the development in the area, on Wednesday, reports that most banks were out of cash, leaving their customers stranded.

At the First Bank and Access Bank, customers were limited to N40,000 and N5,000 cash withdrawals, respectively, over the counter.

Other banks, such as GTB, UBA, Zenith, Union Bank, and Eco Bank were paying between N10,000 and N20,000 only over the counter.

Cashiers at the counters told desparate and angry customers that the banks had no cash to pay.

“The cash we got from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) today is very small.

“We have no option than to spread the amount across our branches in the state,” a bank official said on the condition of anonymity.

According to him, customers no longer come to the bank to make cash deposits.

He said that the situation had negatively affected banking business in the state.

“As you can see, no customer is paying huge sum in cash as deposit.

“Many customers in the banking hall are here to withdraw cash but we don’t have cash,” the official said.

Some business owners that depend largely on cash for their daily activities seem to be worse hit by the development.

The Manager of a restaurant in the city, Mrs Janet Adejor, who was seen in one of the banks brooding over the development, wondered how she could cope without cash.

Adejor said that she wanted to go to vegetable market but expressed worry that it would be difficult for her to make purchases without cash.

“This government needs to do something drastic about this cash crunch before these banks run down our businesses.

“We can’t stand this cash crunch again. We suffered this during the administration of former President Muhamadu Buhari,” she said.

A civil servant, Alhaji Anmed Bello, expressed displeasure over the situation, describing it as “a deliberate policy, targeted at poor”.

Bello said that he was in the bank to withdraw some money to travel but was told that there was no cash.

He asked in frustration, “Where do they expect me to go and get cash now?”

He appealed to the Federal Government to take urgent steps to restore normalcy to the banking sector in order to save small businesses from total collapse. (NAN)