Cash crunch: Commercial sex workers count losses, decry low patronage

Yesterday, commercial sex workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) complained about low business due to a lack of naira notes.

Some of them claimed that the danger of the notes’ scarcity had destroyed their enterprises when they spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.

Notwithstanding the fact that the currency swap policy was laudable, they claimed that the way it was currently being implemented posed difficulties for their company.

A commercial sex worker named Miss Alexandra Tricia (not her real name) claimed that the present “no cash syndrome” has significantly diminished her clientele.

She characterized the progression as slow for the company and disappointing.
“There is no money anywhere, so the business is not booming like it used to.
Following talks, some of my clients will ask if I have an account so they can transfer money to me.
They will tap their phones and inform me that they have moved some money when I give them the account number.

They will want you to start the service right away without you getting an alert, and when you refuse, some of them will start causing trouble. The worst part is that you will see their own alert in their phones but most of the time you will not get your own alert.

In fact, one of my coworkers received a transfer alert from a client, but the money hasn’t arrived yet, despite the fact that she helped the client, she stated.

Miss Ifedi Ote, another sex worker and university dropout, claimed that several of her business associates had temporarily left owing to the present financial crisis.

She claimed that because of the change, clients who were short on funds had to pay “almost nothing” for their services.
“Clients with cash will charge you somewhere between N1,500 and N3,000.”
They will inform you if you deny that the amount is the only cash they have with them and that you must give it to you since you urgently need money.

For the past two weeks, even the Point of Sale agent who we generally direct our customers to when they need money has unexpectedly run out of cash.
She said, “I believe this policy is beneficial because it aims to reduce crime, but the banks do not apply it efficiently.

Tracy Ehigbere, a different commercial sex worker, urged the relevant authorities to resolve the concerns regarding the currency swap scheme right away.
In some of the FCT satellite towns’ mammy markets and brothels, which often saw a flurry of activity, there was no one there.