‘Where is the money?’ Inflation and cash crisis hit hard as Nigeria goes to the polls

On a normal day, Balogun Market in Nigeria’s Lagos is packed with shoppers looking for a bargain on anything from clothes, to freshly cooked street food or cut-price electronics.

But, as Nigerians head to the polls for Saturday’s presidential election, although the aroma of spices and the cacophony of hawkers selling their wares still filled the air, there is barely a customer in sight.

“There’s no business at the market. We’ve all just been sitting here since the morning,” said market trader Ishola as she sat outside her stall selling beads and jewellery. “There’s no people. Do you see anybody around? Nobody.”

Across the street, another trader, named Kabiru, sat looking forlorn behind a case of unsold watches.

“There aren’t any customers,” he said. “Everybody is complaining of a lack of cash. There is no cash in the town.”

It was a similar story across the vast market, one of the largest in West Africa, and one which sprawls across numerous streets and alleys in this megacity of more than 20 million people.

‘People are hungry’

Some speculated that fear of a reoccurrence of the violence that has marred previous Nigerian elections had kept customers away. But most said things had been bad for a while and, in particular, following a botched switch to new bank notes that has plunged the entire country into an unprecedented cash crisis.

In the habitual cut-and-thrust bustle of the market, few customers are prepared to wait.

‘They beg us to lower the price’