Nigeria is riding on the back of a cash crunch, which the central bank said resulted from the move to mop up excess cash from circulation, to hasten its shift to a cashless economy.
The apex bank’s push to redesign high-denomination currency in Africa’s largest economy and curb money supply helped remove N2.3 trillion from circulation between October 2022 and February 2023, according to figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In a report issued in March, Lagos-based Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise estimated the economy lost around N20 trillion to the crisis, one of the naira policy’s several pain points.
