Nigeria is one of the countries on the African continent that has a good economic sector.
But recently, the hasty actions of economic lawmakers who want to change their old paper money to new paper money have caused economic chaos in the country.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari launched the new Naira banknotes at the end of 2022 with the aim of dealing with the issue of money laundering and corruption.
But conflicts began to arise.
Nigeria's central bank introduced new money and restricted mass production to restore 85% of the total money supply outside the banking system.
The action has made cash supply limited in the country.
Most Nigerians have to face difficulties in spending and going about their daily lives due to lack of cash in hand to use.
The new currency exchange situation has caused the savings of Nigerians to be stuck in the bank.
The amount of new paper money is not enough to cover the amount of money that Nigerians want to exchange.
Therefore, Nigerians suffer from starvation and lack of medical supplies in their daily lives.
This conflict has angered Nigerians and they began to act in protest by attacking workers and burning financial institutions.
People started flooding financial institutions to withdraw their money but they had to wait in long queues and go home empty-handed due to the lack of new banknotes.
The situation became worse when irresponsible parties appeared to sell new banknotes illegally at a higher rate.
According to the World Bank, 63% of Nigerians are poor, 33% are unemployed and in 2021, only 45% of adults have a bank account.
This indirectly causes the problem of inflation and currency weakness.
Lack of cash has affected spending and trading patterns for small and medium businesses.
Experts blame economic policymakers for hasty action and without clear planning on the new paper currency conversion.
Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the central bank of Nigeria claimed that there are government agencies that buy and hide the new money for their own purposes and subsequently this crisis has caused problems for Nigerians in their daily lives.
