From my inbox :

Will Nigerians Allow policies to Work?
My experience yesterday at First Bank, oba Akran, Ikeja makes me thinking. I was there yesterday to collect a few dollars sent into my domiciliary account by my son am helping to supervise his building. I was at the bank to collect 3.5k dollars but was told that they have only 5dollar bills. what can I do with that and who will change it for me? I asked the lady at the desk when they will have for me to come back or can't the bank change it to Naira for me since they are expected to buy and sell according to what we heard. She said she doesn't know but why can't I transfered the money to a bureau de change that will give me the naira equivalent. I said I don't know any? Immediately a man strategically positioned beside me said he owns one and that I should transfer to his acct and he will transfer at 850 naira per dollar to my naira acct Immediately. I was afraid but to my surprise the lady at the counter assured me that I will not be duped, that i will receive the alert immediately. I quickly reduced the amount to be collected to 1k incase there is problem. Within 5minutes the transfer was done.

Why my story? I think the intention of government is that the bank should buy and sell dollar so that exchange rate will not be left in the hands of speculators. Why are banks officials now using intermediaries to decide exchange rate instead of their normal bidding with central bank?. The man is always sitting comfortably in the bank making deals that does not have receipts on behalf of corrupt bank officials. With this, It might be difficult to have single exchange rate with all these underground deals. Definitely dollars will continue to be on the rise this way. Government always have good ideas but implementation is the problem because of our greed and less respect for laws. PBAT will now be labeled wicked because what is expected to be achieved will not be realized.
I hope this post will reach those concerned and banks should be monitored.
Thanks.

Barrister Uzukwu Patrick Eze writes:

A few weeks back, a friend based in Portharcout asked me to pick up 20k dollars from someone, convert the funds to Naira, and transfer the proceeds to his account. Innocent me, I walked into a branch of my bank at Ojuelegba and requested them to buy the 20k off me in line with the new CBN policy. It was like I was speaking Greek to them. They'll rather prefer they introduce an 'Aboki' to me who will credit my account and pick up the dollars from me. That was what exactly happened. The branch manager personally conducted the transaction. He brought the 'mallam' who credited my account, and I handed over the forex to him in the managers office. The entire Nigeria is a big crime zone. Banks and bankers are behind a lot of organised crimes in the country. No wonder very beautiful government policies that work in other climes fail here.

Lol.
You have absolutely no idea!