When Fear Outlives Risk: The Institutional Roots of Liquidity Hoarding in Africa
![industrial scale photography, clean documentary style, infrastructure photography, muted industrial palette, systematic perspective, elevated vantage point, engineering photography, operational facilities, a vast container port at the edge of dawn, thousands of shipping containers stacked in perfect rows like caged vaults, their steel surfaces dulled by dust and salt haze, backlit by a low amber sun bleeding through smog, the air thick with suspended particulates and stillness, the silence broken only by distant foghorns, the entire grid stretching beyond sight with no cranes moving, no trucks departing, a monument to order without motion [Bria Fibo]](https://081x4rbriqin1aej.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/viral-images/1daf5615-6143-49f6-b001-3869db395436_viral_3_square.png "industrial scale photography, clean documentary style, infrastructure photography, muted industrial palette, systematic perspective, elevated vantage point, engineering photography, operational facilities, a vast container port at the edge of dawn, thousands of shipping containers stacked in perfect rows like caged vaults, their steel surfaces dulled by dust and salt haze, backlit by a low amber sun bleeding through smog, the air thick with suspended particulates and stillness, the silence broken only by distant foghorns, the entire grid stretching beyond sight with no cranes moving, no trucks departing, a monument to order without motion [Bria Fibo]")
When banks hoard liquidity not out of scarcity but distrust, cities lose a key engine of growth. Peer benchmarks show this pattern precedes declines in foreign direct investment and talent retention—particularly where institutional transparency lags behind financial infrastructure.
It began not with a crash, but with silence—the quiet withdrawal of credit when it was needed most. Across Africa today, banks are stockpiling liquidity like granaries before a drought, not because they lack funds, but because they lack trust. This echoes a hauntingly familiar script: in 1998, Indonesian banks froze lending amid collapsing collateral values and state capture; in 2009, Eastern European lenders hoarded euros as external shocks mounted; now, in Lagos and Dakar, the same playbook unfolds. The lesson repeats across decades and continents—financial systems don’t fail only when loans go bad, they fail when institutions fail to inspire confidence. The real collateral missing isn’t property or cash—it’s integrity. And no amount of liquidity can substitute for that.
—Catherine Ng Wei-Lin
Published February 27, 2026