Karl Toriola, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria expressed that MTN has been bearing the brunt of the Naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria in Q1 2023.
Banks’ customers were encouraged to pay the existing currencies into their bank accounts to enable them to withdraw the new banknotes once circulation began.
The limited availability of the new notes resulted in cash shortages, which impacted our customers’ ability to recharge through physical airtime vouchers (affecting mostly customers who did not have access to digital recharge channels) and overthe-counter (OTC) transactions within our MoMo agent network.
The cash shortages affected the broader macroeconomy, with a consequent significant impact on the private sector.
In addition, supply chains were compounded by exchange rate volatility and the availability of foreign currency needed for capex.
Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria
