The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has insisted on cash payment for its transactions despite the advent of cashless payment methods across other economic sectors, particularly for fares along its Lagos-Ibadan route.
It was noted that NRC officials were neither accepting bank transfers nor utilizing the Point of Sale (PoS) service, but other businesses were.
There was a sign alerting travelers to the Wednesday deadline for the collection of old notes at the Babatunde Fashola station in Agege.
It was discovered that ticket agents only work with the new naira notes at the Johnson Station in Lagos. Also, a trip to the Babatunde Fashola Station revealed that the ticketing staff only accepted the old notes for Wednesday morning prices; all other fares required the use of new notes.
One of the employees claimed that because it is against company policy, management forbids both the deployment of PoS equipment and bank transfers.
The Mobolaji Johnson station has poor patronage, and staff there were implementing lean operations, according to The Guardian.
On Wednesday, passengers traveling from Ibadan to Lagos reported that NRC officials refused to accept the old naira notes, saying that only the new ones would be accepted.
Mrs. Ogunsola, a passenger, claimed that in order to board the train, she had to pay with the little new bills she was carrying in addition to N100 notes. She said that the previous notes were rejected by ticket officials.
Soji, a different passenger who arrived from Ibadan, bemoaned the difficulty he endured in order to obtain the new notes while claiming that the staff at the Ibadan train station insisted on the collecting of fresh notes.
Augustine Arisa, the NRC district manager for Lagos, commented on the situation, saying that everyone is facing a challenge because there is no money around.
He declared that fresh notes are being gathered by the NRC. On the application of PoS, he said: “We are not using PoS. If it is not e-ticketing, you pay cash. Until when we are given the go ahead on e-ticketing. The implication of this is that people who don’t have the new notes won’t be able to use the facility.”
In addition, the NRC administration’s Wednesday intention to require narrow gauge passengers to pay for tickets using new naira notes sparked demonstrations, which ultimately caused the management to change its mind.
The train was delayed at Kajola in Ogun State for more than two and a half hours out of fear for attacks by passengers with old notes until the management issued a reprieve, leaving many passengers with the old naira notes stranded alongside a small number who bought tickets with new notes.
Findings revealed that the management swiftly instructed the ticketing staff at railway train stations in Kajola, Ijoko, Agbado, Agege, and Oshodi to sell tickets to passengers with old naira notes after about two hours of delay from the regular 6.00 departure time from Kajola after receiving feedback on the potential consequences of the decision on ticket sale and violent reaction from stranded passengers with old naira notes.
Yet others who relied on the train to get to their various places of employment early had little choice but to hunt for an alternate.
John Paul, a trader from Yaba who was a passenger, claimed that the move by the corporation’s management to launch the collecting of tickets with new naira notes was impulsive, inappropriate, and embarrassing.
Eric Umezurike, managing director of First Fit Nigeria Ltd, claimed that the NRC is in a better position to collect old naira notes and swap them with a sibling organization like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He questioned what market women, grocery store clerks, and gas station attendants can anticipate if a government agency is rejecting old notes while the issue is still ongoing in court.
Transport businesses that operate interstate shuttles have accepted the CBN’s cashless policy in the meantime.
The bulk of the businesses in Jibowu have embraced online transfers, point-of-sale systems, and other banking channels, according to The Guardian’s visits to some of the stations there.
For passengers without access to cash, transportation firms including GIG Motors, GUO Motors, Okeyson, Young Shall Grow Motors, EFEX, Chisco Motors, and Cross Country already have PoS machines.
Nweke Bernard, brand manager at GUO Transport, stated that the business is already reaping the benefits of encouraging online reservations and bookings.
According to Bernard, the business has given its drivers smart, personalized cards for use with virtual payments and gasoline purchases as part of the cashless economy.
Speaking about more passenger channels, he said: “We have our PoS machines, Bank Transfers and also our wallet system called the G-Wallet. We have quite a number of channels which makes us endure these hard cash flow times; we try to always adjust to make our customers happy always.”
