According to a senior official at First City Monument Bank in Abuja, the Nigerian banking system is experiencing a severe cash shortage.
According to a senior bank official who declined to be identified, officials at the Central Bank of Nigeria are also concerned about the impact of the shortages on businesses.
He said, “A deputy manager at the Central Bank asked me how we are coping with the shortage of cash. “The cash shortage is affecting companies who do transactions in millions. It does not affect small transactions like withdrawals from the ATM.”
Companies, according to the bank official, are already in line for cash for their transactions.
In an interview with reporters, he stated that the cash shortage has no effect on retail transactions.
When a customer arrived to book for N9m, he was told that the amount he desired could not be booked.
“We do not even have N9m available tomorrow,” the official told the customer who needed the amount the next day.
As of November 2021, the CBN said that N3.15trn cash was in circulation as against the N2.7trn in circulation in November 2020.
In an annual report recently published by the CBN, the bank had lamented that the economy was cash dominated.
CBN said, ” The growth in Currency in Circulation (CIC) reflected the continued dominance of cash in the economy.”
Nonetheless, despite an increase in currency in circulation from N2.7 trillion to N3.15 trillion in November of this year, bankers have admitted that the cash in circulation is insufficient to meet their obligations to corporate customers.
