By Kafilat Akinwunmi
Following the recent crisis caused by the scarcity of cash in the country, some students of higher institutions have condemned the naira redesign policy, saying it has had negative impact on allowances and food stuffs they get from their parents, guardians, family and friends before returning to their various academic institutions. Many of them complained that the cash has negatively affected the quantity of foodstuff allocated to them for the whole semester. They said they many of them had given out their foodstuffs or taken the foodstuff back home for consumption to avoid wastage before leaving school for the three-week elections break.
Some of them spoke to Saturday Sun on how the scarcity of cash has affected their allowances.
Olayiwola Adeola, a student of Owu College of Technology, explained to the reporter how the cash scarcity has affected the little money she usually got from her parent when resuming. She said although It wasn’t enough, she was already used to managing the money until she got another. She complained that this cash scarcity was making things much worse and difficult for her. “I’m not taking any foodstuff to school this time around. I’ll have to manage the foodstuffs I left in the school before election break. As I am talking to you now, I’m still looking for my transport fare to return to school tomorrow,” she said.
Pastor Peter, a father of three undergraduates, explained that it was no tea party sponsoring three children during this period of cash scarcity. His words: “To get money to buy foodstuff is even a problem and where you want to buy, as you are buying with POS, you still have to expect charges. That apart, the materials and food ingredients are very costly now. The quantity to be taken back to school has become more expensive, yet there’s no increment in our income. I believe that with the intervention of God and disciplining ourselves, we will eventually do well.
“Students are now suffering. Those who eat three square meals now eat twice or once. Sometime, they don’t even have anything to eat. The money we the parents send to them is not enough and now they have to face this cashless challenge as well. For instance, I’ve spent close to 30,000 for only one out of three and it’s not enough. I pray that God helps us in this country.
Miss Mustapha, another student, said she was in her final year at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti. She explained how the cash crunch had been affecting her negatively, noting that she had not been able to gather any foodstuff for resumption. “Even my neighbours that used to give me money and stuffs just waved and wished me safe journey when I told them I was going back to school. I felt very uncomfortable going back to school because I’m in my final year which is always very expensive to run,” she explained.
Adeyinka Fausat, a student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, also shared her experience with the shop owner when she went grocery-shopping. She was hoping to make some transfer to the shop owner’s account after the shopping only to find out that the network was too weak to enable such transaction.
“I had to return every food item that I picked and I eventually returned home empty handed. I told my mum that I would shop when I get to school. But the question is, what if same happens in Ago Iwoye? Well I pray it doesn’t, because, obviously, I can’t survive without food,” she stated.
