Faced with cash shortages caused by central bank monetary policies, merchants in the Nigerian state of Benue have turned to barter. State traders have implored the Nigerian government to consider rescinding the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redraw policy. The Nigerian Supreme Court has said it will issue its ruling on a lawsuit challenging the naira redraw policy on March 3.
Barter trade helping businesses stay afloat
Cash shortages brought about by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) so-called naira redraw policy has caused merchants in the Nigerian state of Benue to turn to barter, a local report has said. The report added that some merchants, especially those without bank accounts, started accepting payments in the form of goods or products soon after the end of the old naira demonetization term.
As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, CBN’s failed attempt to replace old naira notes with newly designed ones has sparked riots in some states in Nigeria. Many Nigerian politicians, including presidential hopeful Atiku Abubakar, have called for an extension of the deadline.
In response to pleas, the outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, who has backed the CBN’s currency reforms, only agreed to extend the life of the 200 naira notes. As a result of the CBN’s and Chairman Buhari’s refusal to extend the life of the other notes, cash-strapped residents of Benue State, such as Felix Uwakwe, a food merchant, are accepting payment in the form of other estate.
“Bartering is the way out of the current situation in which we find ourselves. We are engaging in some form of barter trade. I call it a form of barter trade because when traders especially people from rural areas come to sell their goods in the city and they are unable to collect exact money for their exchanged goods due to lack of the new redesigned Naira banknotes . , they prefer to exchange the value of their goods with what the merchants to whom they sold their goods have to give them in return”.
Growing calls for Nigerian government intervention
Uwakwe, however, admitted that barter trading is not an ideal method of settling transactions. He implored the CBN to consider issuing more new naira notes as this can put an end to the “unnecessary hardship” Nigerian residents are going through.
Another Benue state resident, Grace Ordah, is quoted in the report as similarly calling on the Nigerian government to heed calls to rescind CBN’s monetary policies.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Supreme Court recently saying It would only issue its ruling in a case where governors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) political party are challenging the naira redraw policy on March 3, just days after the country’s hotly contested election.
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