As the ongoing cash crunch in the country continues to bite harder, many Nigerians have taken to the streets in protest against hardship.
On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, the protests snowballed into violence, as the agitators set ablaze at Union Bank, Access Bank, and First Bank branches in Udu area of Warri, Delta State.
It was gathered that the protests began on Udu streets, a development that resulted in the burning of buildings, and vandalism of banks in the area.
This writer understands that the incidents in Delta aren't the first of it’s kind since Nigerians started to experience the cash crunch.
Just barely a week ago, financial institutions in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, refused to open for business, after protesters vandalised their properties.
Recall that some angry residents took to the streets to protest the shortage of naira banknotes and a hike in the pump price of petrol.
The protests, which started peacefully, quickly escalated, such that shootings and vandalisation of public and private properties soon began.
During the violence, banks became the easy target of attacks across the Ogun state capital as protesters destroyed automated teller machines (ATMs) at different points.
One person was, however, shot during an attempt by some hoodlums to rob a branch of First Bank in Sapon, even as protesters engaged the police in a showdown in the area.
Meanwhile, Bismarck Rewane, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Financial Derivatives Company, has predicted that Nigeria will suffer a total gross domestic product (GDP) loss of $18 million per month due to the cash crunch in the country.
The renowned economist, who stated that the cash crunch was a result of the negative effect of the naira redesign policy, attributed the decline in GDP growth to the reduction in velocity of money circulation and total man-hours loss in the economy.