Sales in the past weeks have been the lowest I have made in a long period, customers no longer come in as usual, Nana, a food vendor told BusinessDay on Monday.
This is as many Nigerians continue the struggle to access new naira notes, which scarcity has brought untold hardship.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had fixed February 10 as the new deadline for the swap of old naira notes, having initially moved it from January 31, 2023.
According to Nana, the naira scarcity is taking a toll on her business leading to a decrease in her income.
“I was accepting bank transfers but there were some transactions I made last week, and till now, I have not received the money. Also, withdrawing the money to take to the market is another challenge. That was why I stopped receiving transfers.
“I have even cut down the amount of food I prepare daily, because I had some leftovers last week. Customers are no longer coming in as much,’’ she said.
It was the same for another Abuja resident who identified herself as Vero, owner of VC Supermarket along the airport road. According to Vero, she is now finding it difficult to restock her shop as at when due because of low sales.
“I usually restock my shop every first weekend of the month, but I could not do so this month. Sales have not been favourable in the past two weeks. People are complaining that they do have money.’’
She decried the impact of the CBN policy, stating that it has created economic distortion, with small businesses being the worst hit.
“I accept only cash from customers, getting cash from the bank is difficult and we cannot rely on these PoS agents because they are now inconsistent. They are also affected,’’ she said.
Read also: How Buhari failed to heed counsel on chaotic naira redesign project
Many of the Point of Sale (PoS) operators have been out of business following the unavailability of the new naira notes, while some increased the transaction charge as a result of the scarcity of cash from commercial banks.
Commenting on the impact of the naira scarcity, the chief executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, said the currency swap could put N100 trillion component of the national GDP at risk, with trade and commerce; and agriculture sectors being the most vulnerable.
According to him, most of the activities in these sectors are either in the rural areas or in the informal sector of the economy.
“These are the sectors that have been driving the resilience of the Nigerian economy amid numerous domestic and global headwinds. Any policy measure that would negatively disrupt these sectors should be avoided.
“With 133 million Nigerians in poverty, inflicting additional hardship on the citizens would be unfair, insensitive and inconsiderate. The reality is that presently in many parts of the country, more than half of the currencies in the hands of citizens are still old notes.’’
Yusuf further called on the government to give a minimum of six months window for the currency swap exercise.
He stated that the crippling of business transactions at the distributive trade end amid the currency swap crisis would not only undermine the trade and agricultural sectors but would have a knock-on effect on the manufacturing value chain and the services sectors.
“This is because whatever is produced has to be sold. The trading end of the chain has been greatly disrupted by this currency swap crisis,” he said.
“We call for the urgent intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari to save millions of Nigerians from the anguish and pain of the current stampede of currency swap inflicted by an unrealistic timeline and glaring capacity gaps in the management of the process,” he added.
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