Cash Scarcity: The Survival of Zikites

By KG & Edun

On Wednesday, 25th of October, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced plans to redesign the N200, N500 and N1000 notes respectively. According to the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, this was, among many other reasons, to encourage a cashless economy and prevent vote buying- to make the monetary policy in general to become more effective. On Wednesday, 23rd of November, the new notes were unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari to intense bants and mockery. The new notes, unlike the old notes were purpleish/wineish, greenish and bluish monochromes respectively.

By January 2023, things had gradually begun to heat up. In order not to have their hard-earned cash rendered useless, many Nigerians rushed to deposit all their cash in banks as they have been encouraged to. But many people were not prepared for what was coming. The new notes became scarce. It became apparent that the decision to redesign the notes was not a well thought out plan and it has been faulted by economists all over the nation.

In a bid to further understand the reality, a ZHPO correspondent went round interviewing different Zikites to get their perspectives on the issue and our respondents did not hold back.

Buying with E-Payments.

The scarcity of both notes of these high denominations of naira has forced every transaction to be done cashless through payment of goods and services by electronic transfer of money on various individual mobile phones. Abdulsalam Salaudeen, a zikite shared his experience of how he and others have been coping with the scarcity of high denominations in cash. “Most of us have resolved to pay through transfers from our accounts to traders where we buy things in the school since money is scarce in cash everywhere. Even in different places outside the school like Agbowo, Bodija, and others, the case is the same everywhere”, he said.

Ayomide Fasinasi, another Zikite who also attested to payments of goods and services by E-Payments further narrated the consequences of E-Payments for transactions. “There were various challenges we faced due to the scarcity of money in cash. One was that price of goods was equivalently raised since we are paying without cash.  Traders begin to add extra charges to the original price of goods which makes things more costly. Also, the traders experienced a reduction in the rate of patronage compared to the time when there was enough cash to spend”, he narrated.

Long-distance travel restriction

Though many people were able to buy different things of their choice and make payments electronically despite the scarcity of cash everywhere, many people were still restricted from traveling long-distance journeys because Electronic Transaction is not acceptable in many car parks. Ayomide Fasinasi explains how the scarcity of money affected the movement of some people in school. “Many planned to go home after their exams last semester, especially during the election period. Consequently, some were unable to perform their civic obligation due to the scarcity of money in cash”, he explained.

Another Zikite, Yinka of the department of Adult Education says: “My experience with the cash scarcity was awful, it kept me stranded many times as I was unable to get cash to carry-on my day to day activities. One of my bad experience was when I was going home from Ibadan but I needed cash for transport and other stuffs, I looked for cash for 2 solid days but couldn’t get due to shortage of physical cash. But a woman in Zik hall that runs a POS shop came to my aid on the second day as I got some cash from her though it wasn’t the amount that I needed but thank God I got some cash, although the charges was outrageous.

Restrictions from buying small but significant items

Part of the havoc cash scarcity caused students was the inability of many to buy items from very small-scale traders. Abdulsalam recounted his experience while trying to buy some items. “The inability to buy small items like pepper, vegetable, and palm oil is also alarming. I have always found it difficult to buy those items because their sellers accept payment by cash for anything that was bought from them. It is always frustrating”, he added.

Other Thoughts on the Redesign Policy

Stephen, a Communication and Language arts student, saw the policy as a cruel move by  the government. According to him: “…the redesign is not curbing hoarding or votebuying in any way, it is only punishing Nigerians.”

A fellow Zikite, Timi of the department from Arts and social sciences “The naira redesign policy is a NO for me because there is no added value , the scarcity of the new notes made life very difficult. I pray that God intervenes  and Implore my fellow zikites to show generosity with any amount of money they can so we can make situation of things less burdensome. Kindly speak to the vendors to help in reducing the price for charges, it’s too much. We understand the state of things but they should be considerate too.”

A respondent Sogaolu Favor, from the department of Pharmacy, however, spoke positively of the policy. He said, “The naira redesign is a good approach on reducing all the criminal atrocities that do go om during the election. It hasn’t affected me in any way because I don’t need cash to run my daily activities.”