{"id":56992,"date":"2024-11-26T10:12:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T10:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=56992"},"modified":"2024-11-26T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T10:15:47","slug":"cash-crisis-rocks-nigeria-ahead-of-festive-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/11\/26\/cash-crisis-rocks-nigeria-ahead-of-festive-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash Crisis Rocks Nigeria Ahead of Festive Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Emmanuel Ogbodo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the holiday season looms, Nigerians are grappling with a severe cash shortage, disrupting businesses and daily transactions nationwide. Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria\u2019s (CBN) claim that N3.87 trillion is outside the banking system, access to cash remains a struggle, leaving many in long ATM queues or turning to costly alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>Recent data shows 93.34% of Nigeria\u2019s currency is held outside formal banking channels, with rural markets particularly hard-hit.<\/p>\n<p>Vendors remain wary of digital payments due to past fraud experiences, further deepening the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>In Nyanya, near Abuja, residents like entrepreneur John Otafu endure daily frustration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You search endlessly for a working ATM, only to be limited to N10,000 withdrawals,&#8221; he lamented.<\/p>\n<p>The situation has sparked tension between banks and Point-of-Sale (POS) operators. POS agents accuse banks of restricting withdrawals, while banks blame operators for hoarding cash and exploiting the scarcity.<\/p>\n<p>In Mararaba, innovative solutions have emerged, with POS agents partnering with traders to secure cash, albeit at steep fees.<\/p>\n<p>Experts warn that Nigeria\u2019s cash dependency is unsustainable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe nation must embrace digital banking or face recurring crises,\u201d a banking official cautioned.<\/p>\n<p>For now, as the festive season nears, the cash crunch leaves Nigerians caught between tradition and the urgent need for modernization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emmanuel Ogbodo As the holiday season looms, Nigerians are grappling with a severe cash shortage, disrupting businesses and daily transactions nationwide. Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria\u2019s (CBN) claim that N3.87 trillion is outside the banking system, access to cash remains a struggle, leaving many in long ATM queues or turning to costly alternatives. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":56996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56994,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56992\/revisions\/56994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}