Some commercial sex workers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have decried low patronage due to the scarcity of naira notes.
They lamented that the scarcity of the new notes posed a threat and had crippled their businesses.
They said that although the currency swap policy was commendable, the current mode of implementation was a challenge to their business.
One of the commercial sex workers who simply identified herself as Sharon, said her customers had reduced drastically due to the current ‘no cash syndrome’.
She said, “The business is no longer booming like before because cash is scarce everywhere.
“Some of my customers will come and after negotiations, they will ask if I have an account so they can transfer the money to me.
”When I give them the account number, they will press their phones and tell me that they have transferred some money.”
She added, “The worst part of it is that I will see their alert on their phones but most times, I will not get the alert.
“They will want me to start the service immediately without me getting an alert and when I refuse, some of them will start making trouble.
“There is one of my colleagues whose customer sent a transfer alert to but up till now, the money is still pending, yet she has serviced the man.”
Another sex worker, Mariam, said many of her colleagues in the business had left temporarily due to the current cash crunch.
She said the development had caused customers who had little cash at hand to pay ‘next to nothing’ for their services.
Mariam said, “Clients who have cash will price you as low as N1,500 to N3,000.
”When you refuse, they will tell you that the amount is the only cash they have on them, and because I need cash, I will be forced to accept the price.”
She added, “Even the Point of Sale agent where we usually direct our customers to for money transfer or withdrawal has run out of cash for the past two weeks.
”I think this policy is a good one because it is meant to curb crime, but the banks are not implementing it well,” she said.
Another commercial sex worker, simply identified as Lucy, pleaded with the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to urgently address the cash crunch affecting the country.
It was also observed that some of the mammy markets and brothels along tje FCT satellite towns which usually witnessed beehives of activities were deserted.
