The Unduly Elusive Reason Behind Africa’s Decrepit Credit Terrain

No credit today; come back tomorrow.

Often referred to as the best way to ward off wildly ungainful patronage, no credit today; come back tomorrow is typically the boldly written notice some moderately cheeky rural storekeepers use to dissuade folks from outrightly asking to purchase merchandise on credit. 

In one too many case scenarios, this caveat is deemed a perpetually amusing attempt at simultaneously shading and disarming unsuspecting borrowers. There's virtually nowhere else this somewhat unusual reality is more commonplace than in Africa, where the majority of economies yet depend heavily on cash transactions. 

Due to this widespread reliance on paper currency, the traditional storefronts are often more obliged to sell only to customers brandishing minted notes. Barring the proliferation of electronic transactions, it is usually a no-money-no-sale situation.