The new naira crisis in the nation has caused an unparalleled amount of hardship for Nigerians from all walks of life.
It goes without saying that the experience has been terrifying, unsettling, and extremely painful for many enterprises.
But most affected of all this are the Micro, Small, and Medium Businesses. Particularly given the fact that many companies in this group heavily rely on cash-based payments.
Solomon Aderoju, national vice president of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Businesses, said in an interview with The PUNCH that the challenges encountered by MSMEs had gotten so bad that many companies had “collapsed.”
Aderoju said, “It’s terrible. It’s affecting us a very great deal because as you know, many of our businesses are cash and carry. So it has really collapsed our businesses. It is not a good story to tell at all.
“It is affecting everybody, but mostly the MSMEs because of its cash and carry mode of operation. Some of our members don’t believe in account operations. They believe in cash and carry, so it is quite unfortunate.”
In order to phase out the old notes in a way that wouldn’t cause tremendous misery for businesses and the populace, the Central Bank of Nigeria should, in Aderoju’s opinion, have taken a page out of the Bank of England’s playbook.
He said, “Let’s see what’s happening in the United Kingdom. The UK also has changed their currency from Queen to King, and it will take them over a year to do that.
“So we believe that the old and new notes can still go concurrently. So the government has to really see how we can let the old notes stay and print the new notes.
“The mechanism is supposed to collect the old notes and give us the new notes. But in this case, they collect the old notes and are not releasing the new notes.
“It’s quite unfortunate honestly. They should give us more time to do this if they are sincere enough. There must be the sincerity of purpose if they want us to live in the country.
See the video below for more reactions!
