Abuja Sex workers decry reduced patronage over Naira Swap Policy

A number of commercial sex workers in Abuja, the federal capital territory, have complained about low number of customers due to the naira swap policy.

The sex workers made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). While some commended the policy, they stated that it had made their work more difficult.

They lamented that some customers seemingly swindled them with fake alerts or otherwise priced their services for cheap due to scarcity of cash.

The workers said that their resident PoS operator had closed shop after being unable to get cash themselves.

A sexworker with the pseudonym Tricia said;

”The business is no longer booming like before because there is no cash anywhere.
”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.
”The worst part of it is that you will see their own alert in their phones but most times you will not get your own alert.
”They will want you to start the service immediately without you getting an alert and when you refuse, some of them will start making trouble.
”Infact, there is one of my colleagues that a customer sent a transfer alert to but up till now, the money is still pending but she has serviced the man,” she said.

Another sex worker, Miss Ifedi Ote 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.
”Even the Point of Sale (PoS) agent where we usually direct our customers to for money has suddenly ran 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.