Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, is facing a “chaotic” cash shortage amid monetary reform. Citizens are forced to stand in queues for hours at currency withdrawal points in the face of a total shortage of banknotes, Bloomberg reports.
Excessive demand for banknotes was provoked by the decision of the authorities to change the design of the national currency – naira. Such a reform turned into huge queues in the center of the country’s largest city, Lagos.
Chaos has ensued as ATMs run out of new banknotes days before the deadline for making the high-priced currency illegal, the article says. At the same time, residents have the right to withdraw a maximum of 20,000 naira ($43), but in many ATMs it is impossible to get cash at all.
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