Scarcity Of Cash: Favourable Or Traumatic?

By Chinaza Osigwe

The scarcity of cash has had different effects on the students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Some students consider it as favourable while some vehemently state that it is traumatic for them.

Samuel Anike, a 400 level student of the department of Public Administration is of the view that the situation is quite unfavourable to him though he admits to some of the positive effects of it. He stated that he had to stop his regular medical checkup because of the scarcity of cash and thus made him fall sick a couple of times. He also said the situation has adversely affected his business.

In his own words” I have had to beg people for cash , something I don’t do before and most times the situation always gets more embrassing”.

When asked of the positive side of the situation, he said it has made him save some money because even though he had the money in his account,he had limited access to it and so doesn’t spend unnecessarily.

An award winning poet from the department of Mass communication (100 level), Nweke Bernard Okechukwu views the situation as a critical period in the Nigerian clime. He says that little observation depicts wide outcry stemming from the instability posed by ugly nature.

“As an average student at Nigerian higher Institutions of learning, specifically NAU, the difficulties it stands in our way is very enormous. We have recorded occasions students missed classes and quizzes because they weren’t on cash-to-foot transport”.

When asked of the positive sides he said, “there are always two sides to a story. Meaning there are elements of positivism. Obvious of them is the value of the naira. Unlike its surplus nature, scarcity of it has drawn significance to our currency” “I have already established positive perspectives. Its shortcomings are voluminous as well. One of them is the infinitesimal cash availability which limits the speed of the business boom. Little or no capital to start up a small-scale business”

Another student, Ms. Okeifufe Precious Ozioma of the Department of Political Science, 200 level, says the situation has negatively affected her academics as she is not able to attend most of her classes because of transportation fare. ” This cashless policy has dealt with me mercilessly, I miss most of my classes not because I don’t want to go to class but because the transport fare is not there, I just hope this ends soon”
She shared a story on how she almost missed her quiz because she was unable to pay for an assignment she had printed in a cyber cafe. She had transferred the money to the woman but she couldn’t see the alert. She had to beg the woman to release the assignment to her so she could submit it , luckily for her the woman agreed and that was how she was able to submit the assignment. ” But you see if the cash was there, these things wouldn’t be happening, actually these days I don’t even feed well, there’s no cash to buy foodstuffs and this has affected my reading habits”

Another student, Ms. Nebedum Chinyere Augustina of the Department of Mass communication,100 level has affirmed that the cashless policy has helped increase the value of the naira notes. She believes it has helped people save more as it prevents unnecessary spending though She appeals to the Government to release the cash through the CBN so as to alleviate the people’s suffering.

Furthermore,Mr Bernard Nweke of the Department of mass communicationn 100 level,had this to say on the possible ways of curbing the situation.

“The Federal Government as a matter-of-factly, should enact a policy through the financial body knowns as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to allow financial institutions to make available for use”.

“However, to maintain an equilibrium, there should be specifications to serve every bank consumer the same amount of cash to attend to some pressing needs.In the same vein, individuals should mastermind and apply economic knowledge to managing a few available resources in the face of scarcity”

Generally speaking, cash scarcity has come, and it will go like every other social problem experienced as a people. It is even an era of acclimatization to different social challenges.