Scrolling through my gallery today, I came across a picture of me holding some money, which is my country's currency. Then I laughed because gone are those times that I would withdraw a lot of money from the bank without stressing myself to withdraw it, and I make sure I have some cash at hand in case I have to spend it on some needs that may arise at home.
But after the cashless situation going on in my country, Nigeria, I haven't been able to get hold of a lot of money like that in my hands or keep some for emergency use or if any needs arise because it's hard to get even a thousand naira, not to mention withdrawing a lot of it from the bank.
Most commercial cars and motorcycles didn't use to collect transfer fees whenever a person wanted to board their car or motorcycle, but now they do and demand a ridiculous amount to be added to it as charges they will use to withdraw it when they have the opportunity, and that's if they do. The market woman and trader are not left out either, because they also demand extra charges when you buy things from them and do a transfer. It's not their fault, though, but the fault of the government, which is holding up cash and not releasing it so that it will be available for the citizens to use.
At first, when all this happened, which was due to the naira that was changed into a new one, there was an opportunity for us to withdraw money at a POS point for a lot of charges higher than the normal amount, which is affecting a lot of people in the country.
Passing through all this stressful time because of the scarcity of cash in the country is tough, and I know it's the masses that it affects the most because most of the rich in the country won't be swayed by all this bad situation that is happening.
Hopefully, all this will be history one day, and we won't have to stress or suffer ourselves before we get to spend our own money or withdraw it from the bank. My words to Nigerians are that they should stay strong till we get out of all these bad times because we are definitely going to smile again.
Thank you for reading.