Several microfinance bank customers in Osun State have threatened to storm the streets in the state as a protest to the hardship involved in withdrawing money from their respective accounts.
In certain microfinance banks visited in Osogbo by journalists from PUNCH newspapers on Wednesday, February 2, it was discovered that several officials of the banks were unavailable during work hours, thus, leaving several customers waiting endlessly to withdraw from their accounts.
Some of the customers claiming to be salary earners, who only get paid their monthly salaries through their accounts domiciled in the microfinance banks had been lamenting bitterly about the present situation while threatening to go on protest over the subpar way they had been treated.
However, an official of a microfinance bank in Osogbo, who spoke with the reporters under the condition of anonymity revealed that the refusal of the CBN to include microfinance banks in its plan for the replacement of old naira notes with new ones was mainly responsible for the collapse of operations of the microfinance banks.
Meanwhile, when contacted for his statement, the chairman of the National Association of Microfinance Banks, -NAMB, Osun state chapter, Mr. Tunde Lawal, confirmed the collapse in operations of several banks while also attributing lack of cash as the reason for dissatisfied customers.