The owners of Nigeria’s small-scale businesses and their customers are now experiencing difficulties on account of the shortage of lower naira denominations; N50, N100 and N200 in circulation throughout the length and breadth of the country, especially rural areas and some urban regions. This nagging menace is now putting the stumbling socio-economic development of the country in further jeopardy.
Nigeria’s petty traders find themselves in a quandary when they wish to give some balances for their customers. Last week, I heard a petty trader who sells vegetables here in Azare main market saying, “Sincerely speaking, the shortage of lower currency notes is throwing us in an indescribable imbroglio. The CBN governor should flood our markets with N200, N100, N50, N20 and N10 because of their importance to our businesses.’’
In fact, the shortage of these indispensable notes has been hitting Nigeria’s small-scale businesses for virtually a decade. For instance, in response to a similar situation in 2018, the CBN had observed the insufficient circulation of the banknotes.
In the same year (2018), the Senate set up a joint committee to investigate the menace of the scarcity of the lower currency notes, following a motion passed by a serving senator, Mr Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta-North), adopted by the Senate and titled, ‘Scarcity of Lower Denomination Currency Notes’.
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It has been alleged that the apex bank has not given a contract for the printing of smaller denomination currency notes since 2015. And some financial experts look upon the scarcity of these notes as a threat to the country’s toddling economy.
From my perspective, this sad situation is linked to the mutilation of the lower denomination currency notes, inability of Nigeria’s commercial banks to load the lower denomination banknotes into their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and the failure of the CBN to print the sufficient banknotes.
To sum up, the attention of the CBN governor, Dr Olayemi Cardoso, should be brought to the fact that the scarcity of the lower denomination banknotes is now bringing Nigeria’s small-scale businessmen and women and their customers to its knees. It is incumbent upon him to do everything possible to help arrest the disturbing menace by printing sufficient currency notes of this category since their shortage may lead to total collapse of the country’s socio-economic development. He should also command all the branches of the apex bank in the 36 states of the federation and other banks to source those lower denomination notes that are not completely torn, defaced and mutilated, to urgently release them from their dump vaults and do their utmost to ensure their flooding over the country’s markets of the rural areas and some urban regions.
Mustapha Baba Azare, Bauchi State
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