Cash scarcity reduces demand for some basic commodities; transporters bring less; prices escalate on account of reduced supply and demand plummets even further – ad infinitum
On December 30, 2023, in our SATURDAY VANGUARD, I got an article published titled NIGERIA 2024: SLIDING FURTHER INTO CHAOS. I summarised the year as follows: “2024 in Nigeria will be characterised by three words – scarcity, failure and chaos.” Scarcity of cash and foreign exchange now lead the parade of other scarcities. Go to any market – open market for the masses or supermarkets for the rich – and you will be surprised how scarce items we once took for granted have become.
Nigerians were warned before that the Tinubu government would have very little to offer us this year; that scarcity of a lot of things is inevitable. Has the reader noticed how the CBN and FG have ignored the cash scarcity problem? It is because they have no clue on how to solve the problem. Yet, not finding a solution to it has condemned millions of mini-enterprises to liquidation; and millions, previously employed to joblessness. Unknown to Tinubu, a spiral of misery has gradually developed.