One month after the
implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy in Rivers State, transactions at the 9th Port Harcourt trade fair in Isaac Boro Park have not been affected by the policy.
The Tide’s survey at the trade fair venue over the weekend, revealed that customers were paying cash for all their purchases, as there were no Automate Teller Machines (ATM) and Point of Sales (POS) services to aid the cashless policy compliant for  customers.
Speaking in a chat with The Tide, the sales representative of Vitafoam, Mr Clement A. Ese, said that there was nothing like cashless policy in the trade fair as many people did not even know what it meant.
Ese said it was difficult for anyone to talk about cashless policy when there were no ATM and POS services around, stating that one cannot even find any bank within the trade fair venue “except Enterprise Bank that is there to look for customers”.
He noted that in developed countries, “when you introduce something, you educate the people about it. Cashless is meant for the literate population and we have not seen serious sensitisation on the policy”.
The sales representative also noted that people have developed hatred for the use of ATM because of withdrawal notifications even when the machines have not paid the customers.
A civil servant, Mr Iyenemi Briggs who was at the trade fair to buy things expressed disappointment over the issue of carrying cash around to pay for goods when those transactions would have been cashless.
“The disadvantages of carrying  much cash around is serious. There is no cashless policy here and I wonder why.”
“The banks are not here, showing that the banks are sabotaging the policy”, he said, wondering why Africans find it difficult to adjust to change.
He, however, called on the media to do more publicity in the area of educating, entertaining and informing the people about the operations of the policy.
Mrs Ato Aseku, who deals on kitchen utensils said the sales have been very poor and that there are few customers, adding that, “it is when you see customers, you talk about cash or cashless”.
She said that nobody has come to ask of POS and that nobody is using POS in the entire trade fair.
The Director of Ben Zacky Limited, dealers of Generators and Cookers, Mr Ben Zacky, told our correspondent that no customer has even asked of the POS, adding that most people do not know what is cashless.
He noted that the cashless policy even affected their business as people have limited amount of money they can withdraw in a day.
Zacky said that this year’s trade fair has not picked up till now, adding that companies are yet to recover the cost of their stands.
The Director of Madu’s Global Ventures, Chief Chijioke Nwokedi, blamed Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, for what he called the low turnout in the trade, adding that the increase in price for the stands are responsible for the empty stands here and there.
He noted the need for the chamber to apologise to companies in order to bring them back to the fair, as he rated the organisation poor.
On the cashless policy implementation, he said, “there is no cashless policy here, no POS, ATM and even if anybody pays one with cheque, I will cash it before releasing the goods to the customer.