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The inability of many Nigerians to access cash for daily activities is beginning to impact livelihoods and productivity in the real sector negatively while pushing many businesses in the informal sector to the edge.
Employers are already noticing an increase in employee absenteeism, particularly among low-caliber workers, as a result of their inability to pay for transportation. Due to fewer employees and weak product sales at the retail level, factories are also seeing a decrease in the number of shifts and utilisation, while stakeholders in the informal sector have seen a dip in activity in recent weeks.
Many Nigerians are stuck in a bind, unable to complete critical transactions when they choose to adopt cashless payments but also unable to access their cash because many banks' online platforms and apps continue to fail the stress test.
Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), are allegedly planning to face contempt charges for their alleged refusal to carry out the Supreme Court's ruling on the Federal Government's naira redesign policy. However, the organized private sector noted that the economy has lost an estimated N20 trillion since the cash crisis began.
While CBN officials claiming the bank was still sorting the notes, President Muhammadu Buhari's silence over the Supreme Court's ruling had fueled the rejection of the old N1,000 and N500 as lawful cash.
According to The Guardian's investigation, banks stopped giving their customers small sums of cash following the presidential election, making it more difficult to obtain cash.
Point of Sale (POS) businesses, who have worked to decrease the cash gap despite Nigerians' willingness to pay more for available cash, are equally constrained by a lack of access.
According to information obtained by The Guardian, many Nigerians increasingly depend on donations from churches and petrol station cashiers to pay for their daily costs and travel to and from work.
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) asserts that the N20 trillion in losses suffered by the economy were caused by the slowdown in economic activity, the paralysis of trade, the suppression of the informal economy, the contraction of the agricultural sector, and the paralysis of the rural economy, and that thousands of jobs have also been lost as a result.
Dr. Muda Yusuf, the chief executive officer of CPPE, noted that despite the rejection of old currency notes by market participants, banks' refusal to accept them, the Presidency's silence regarding the Supreme Court ruling, and the absence of an official statement from the CBN on the matter, Nigerians continue to suffer from the acute cash shortage.
He continued by saying that as long as payment system issues exist, retail transactions across all industries have grown anxious and upsetting.
