So as I was saying, earlier this year, as the 2023 general election were fast approaching in Nigeria , the Central Bank of Nigeria through her governor and the President started bringing up new laws of spending money. At the end of the day, an order was passed to the commercial banks not to pay an individual more than #40,000 per day. Prior to this order, in the latter two months of 2022, new notes of #200, #500 and #1000 naira were changed. A date was set for the expiry of the old notes. The old notes were expected to be out of use on the 10th of February 2023,but the new ones were not much in circulation. This created a lot of panic amongst citizens and there were influx of people trying to deposit the old notes and withdraw the new ones from banks each day. Many successfully deposited their old notes but couldn't have access to withdraw the new ones.
Along the line, the #40,000 daily withdrawal limit was stamped but banks had insufficient funds to meet the needs of the populace so they resolved to giving amounts between #2000 and 40,000 which could #2000, #3000, #4000, #5000, 10,000 or more all depending on how much was sent to a bank by the central bank.
People had to struggle to get the money they worked hard to keep in financial institutions. Many had to wake up as early as 3am, 4am, or 5am to get to bank early for queue in order to withdraw. It was a thug of war to make a withdrawal. A successful withdrawal now looked similar to winning a jackpot.
I remember so many days I tried to withdraw money but couldn't as a result of the many number of people who were there for the same purpose
Many of these days, one would arrive at the bank and the bankers will tell you no money. Sometimes, they will tell you they are not sure but you should wait. After waiting for hours, you get nothing home. This continued for about three months.
At a point, Nigerians started buying Naira with naira. Many payed 10 - 20% of the money they wants to withdraw to be able to make withdrawals. This wasn't from the banks though but fellow countrymen. Thus is not to dispute the fact that bankers collected bribes to give certain high-classed individuals money at the expense of the poor and average.
Many traders and market men/women wanted cash for goods sold. That made thing became worst. Ordinarily, we could have gone cashless but not everyone had a bank account, not everyone could use phones smartly.
People missed important appointments and missed out of life-changing opportunities because they couldn't get cash to move.
Nigerians begged to be able to get a small fraction of the money kept in their accounts. It was a trying time for everyone. In those days people who had cash were the rich and wealthy ones, while others who had millions of money in banks were poor. Very funny right?
We thought it wouldn't end because the end was not in sight. The start of the Ramadan fasting brought an end to the pain and agony caused by the bad policy implemented by the CBN.
You will agree with me that if one had full control of one's money, the government wouldn't have been able to implement that policy.
The whole thing was more of a problem because crypto had not been adopted in Nigeria. It restricted everyone from spending.
The government implemented that policy for the common interest of the citizens but it brought suffering upon everyone except the elite of the society.
It is high time every developed and developing country started looking into the technology of blockchain and accept cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin as a payment token. I salute El-Salvador and the Central African Republic that have fully adopted crypto. To see the USA, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, Italy, UK and Ukraine legalize crypto tells us a lot but their full adoption can go a long way to encourage developing countries like Nigeria to have a rethink on its policies against use of cryptocurrency.