Nigeria Cash Catastrophe

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#Nigeria, February 24, 2023 – A recent decision to move to new banknotes has been delayed for 60 days after causing turmoil in Nigeria with people running out of money and crowding ATMs.

The 200 Naira, 500 Naira and 1000 Naira notes were all scheduled to be discontinued and replaced by January 31st. The deadline had to be pushed to Feb 10 because residents just could not get their hands on the new notes leaving them stuck with old notes that were no longer legal tender.

The country’s courts tried to step in barring the Feb 10 deadline but that ruling fell on deaf ears as the government moved forward anyway, causing extremely long lines at banks and ATMs in the country.

Finally, President Muhammadu Buhari announced in early February that the old N200 notes will remain in circulation for 60 more days along with the new notes.   But the economy is already feeling the effects of the cash shortage.  While a significant cross-section of Nigerians use digital banking and the country’s online banking section is growing rapidly, a large section of the population still relies on cash for daily transactions, especially in rural areas.

The new notes and limits on withdrawing large amounts of money instituted by the Central Bank of Nigeria were initially in an effort to take some of the cash out of circulation but the effort has backfired leaving residents angry, frustrated and cashless.