Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The sufferings of Nigerians at the moment are increasing by the day as most petrol stations in Lagos are compounding their woes, fuelling their anger.
At the fuel stations monitored by Business Post on Monday and Tuesday, consumers are forced to pay for the product in cash, with card payments rejected by attendants.
Some motorists who spoke with this reporter expressed their frustration over the development, accusing the oil marketers of conniving with the government to put them through untold hardship.
“This country is frustrating. The government has made getting cash very difficult through its Naira redesign policy, and the petrol stations selling in this period of scarcity are insisting on collecting cash from us when they know getting cash is not easy,” a motorist, who identified himself as Mr Yinka Adegbule, said.
Another consumer, Mr Chukwu Osita, said, “When it got to my turn in the queue, I gave the fuel attendant my ATM card, but he said they are not collecting. When I asked why he said the network is not going.
“I was told to move my card away from the queue and look for a POS terminal to get cash.
“Going across the road, I was told that the fee for N15,000 is N3,000. I was almost crying, asking myself how we got into this mess in Nigeria.
“I was left with no choice but to pay N18,000 to get N15,000, which I later used to buy fuel into my car and jerry cans for my power generating set at home.
“I only came here to buy fuel because I heard they were selling at N185 per litre, unlike down the road where it goes for N320 per litre without a queue.”
When Business Post asked the manager of one of the petrol stations on the Egbeda/Idimu Road why they are not accepting card payments, she blamed the poor network of the banks for this.
“It is not our fault; we observed that our POS was debiting customers’ cards while declining their transactions. In order not to create issues, we had to stop and insisted on cash payment.
“We would have accepted USSD payments or transfers from bank apps, but I am not in charge of the bank account of the company. We would have to make calls to the person in charge to confirm payments before we attend to customers, which could slow the queue and create tension,” the manager said.
It was a similar situation in the Gbagada area of Lagos State yesterday at prominent oil marketers selling petrol to customers.
In Ikeja on Tuesday morning, this reporter observed that customers were also forced to make payments with cash on the excuse of poor network for the rejection of card payments.
