Nigeria is sick

It seems like every time I talk about Nigeria, I'm complaining about something and this post continues the trend. However, it is important to state that if I didn't have strong feelings for the country, I'll not be complaining about it.

Nigeria is rife with a variety of problems ranging from political to security. Pretty much everything that could be wrong with the country has happened and the only thing that we had going for us was our banks.

You see, despite being in cahoots with the central bank to make life difficult for crypto enthusiasts, Nigerian banks have largely been excellent. In fact, when it comes to remittance as a whole, Nigerian banks proved to be quite competent, as they enable fast transactions.

I don't know how banks work in other countries but in Nigeria, you deposit money into your account and you can easily use that money for everyday transactions. Every account owner has a mobile application and a USSD code that you can use to access your account.

After accessing your bank account, you can simply transfer Naira from your bank account to any other bank account in Nigeria, regardless of which bank the other person uses. This process takes a couple of seconds, but on really bad network days, it could take an hour.

This means that while physical cash is important, you can largely get by with your mobile bank application. So, for example, if you have a car to get around, you just have to ensure you do all your shopping at select locations where you can either just transfer Naira to their own bank account with your mobile phone or just swipe with your debit card.

The Central Bank of Chaos

Now, the reason I'm talking about how easy it used to be to transfer money to and from bank accounts within Nigeria is because of the recent redesign of some Naira notes. The three highest denominations of our currency in circulation are 200, 500 and 1000 Naira bill.

Recently, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria initiated the design of new notes to replace the old top three denominations. The "redesign" wasn't much of a redesign though; it was basically like putting a Snapchat filter on the old note but that's irrelevant.

The reason for the redesign is shrouded in ifs and buts, but we know that it is connected to the coming election scheduled to go down in about two weeks. The word is that the decision to redesign the notes was to somehow curb vote buying in polling units and other malpractice.

The redesign of the new notes also came with some other associated rules that include restrictions on withdrawals and a three-month period when the old notes become obsolete. The crazy thing about it is that this didn't pass through a senate hearing, it was a decision that was taken solely by the Central bank.

After the decision was made by the CBN, senators reacted by asking for an extension to the cut-off date and whatnot. The CBN adjusted but only slightly, as the date for obsolescence of the old notes was moved from 31st January to 10 February or something like that.

You'd think that since this move was taken so abruptly, there were facilities in place to implement it but that would also mean you don't know Nigeria. Right now, Nigeria has plunged into chaos as there's a shortage of naira bills in circulation.

Not only have the recently redesigned bills been scarce, but they are also now very expensive, can you believe this shit? Right now, you will pay 20% to easily access Naira bills, if you don't want to go to the crowed ATMs.

The crazy thing is that even the old notes that weren't redesigned have also suddenly been scarce. This, as you expect, has plunged the country into chaos as people are literally fighting each other in ATM queues to access cash that will enable them go about their daily lives.

Now, you remember the one thing I praised Nigerian banks for at the start? Yeah, that isn't reliable anymore, as we now have a lot of failed transactions due to the network being smashed.

As if all this wasn't bad enough, many banks have looked at the situation and decided to temporarily pull the plug on their operations. Zenith bank where my wife has an account, for example, recently had some of their staff assaulted by agitated Nigerians and this led to a nationwide halt in their operations.

On top of all of this, we're still dealing with the usual problems that include security challenges, hike in the price of fuel, police brutality and epileptic electricity supply to name a few. Nigeria is sick!!!

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