Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have used the occasion of Easter to thank God for surviving the cash crunch caused by the naira redesign policy.

On Monday, the residents, in separate interviews, said they were grateful to God for being alive to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

They said January to March was excruciating due to the Naira scarcity.

Elizabeth Joseph, a businesswoman and mother of four, said it was a “testimony” that her family survived the period.

“My husband and I are business persons, and I can say we are fairly comfortable. However, the naira scarcity wrecked us to the point that it was difficult to afford three square meals, not because we did not have money. We could not access money for a lot of things, and we had to ration our food,” Ms Joseph said.

Godswill Adah, a civil servant, said the level of hardship he went through during the period was unimaginable. He said he almost lost his aged mother, who was ill during the period because of naira scarcity.

Mr Adah also said it was difficult to go to work because he “could not get cash for transport fare.”

He said although Nigerians were still facing some challenges in obtaining cash, the situation was better in April.

“I turned to begging to be able to get as little as N500 to pay for the fare to get to the office. Thank God for the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to push the old notes back into circulation,” Mr Adah explained. “I can imagine what would have become of us today if that decision was not taken.”

Eucharia Njoku, a retiree, said the government should put measures in place to prevent a repeat of the hardship at the expiration of the December 31 deadline for using old notes.

“I am hypertensive, and it was not funny at all. It is not that I did not have money, but I could not access my money. My automated teller machine (ATM) card expired, and I could not queue to get cash because of the stress,” stated Ms Njoku.

(NAN)