A 27-second video of banknotes washing through a warehouse doorway had drawn 6.4 million views by Wednesday afternoon, turning a plumbing failure at AsterQuay Cash Services into a crisis for banks and shopkeepers across Nigeria’s commercial capital. The flood began at 06:20 on Tuesday, when a pipe joint failed inside the firm’s Apapa depot.
AsterQuay handles cash sorting and delivery for 11 banks, and says it supplies about 18% of Lagos’s cash-replenishment runs. It reported that 184 ATMs were temporarily out of service by Tuesday evening; electronic transfers continued, but businesses relying on cash described queues and missed deliveries.
Water reaches the cash floor
The video, recorded from across a narrow loading lane, shows brown water pushing sealed cash trays and loose notes through an open roller door. A second angle, shared widely online, captures workers lifting soaked cartons onto a hand trolley as water pours from the building’s drain. The footage contains no indication that any money was taken.
AsterQuay’s managing director, Tumelo Mdluli, said an initial estimate put up to ₦8.6 billion in notes, sorting equipment and payment materials in the flooded section. “No customer account balances were stored there, and we have not found evidence of missing cash,” he said. “The damage is serious, but the notes will be counted and assessed before anyone calls them a loss.”
Our shop had cash for breakfast and nothing for the afternoon delivery.
Katja Clemmensen, grocery-shop owner
Clemmensen said a cash delivery scheduled for Tuesday did not arrive at her shop in Surulere, where customers commonly pay in notes for small purchases. She borrowed change from a neighbouring trader and turned away some cash-only suppliers. AsterQuay said it redirected deliveries to unaffected depots, but warned that full service could take several days.
The Lagos Incident Response Service said its initial inspection found no structural damage and no report of injuries. Water entered through a service corridor after a pipe connection failed, according to its operations director, Lilian Delgado. Inspectors were checking whether the depot’s drainage pumps and backup power system activated as designed.
A rate pause, tighter cash
The accident hit as businesses were already weighing borrowing costs after the fictional Federal Monetary Board held its benchmark rate at 26.5% on Monday, following two increases this year. Finance adviser Adrian Shaw said the pause eased expectations of another immediate rise but did nothing to solve a cash-delivery disruption. “For a small retailer, a card terminal is not a substitute if the supplier still wants notes,” he said.
AsterQuay said it would pay for emergency deliveries from two depots outside Apapa and expected to restore most affected ATM routes by Friday. The company has not published its final damage assessment. Mdluli said its insurers and bank clients had been notified, and that damaged notes would be separated for formal assessment rather than returned to circulation.
The clip has also prompted questions from bank customers about whether cash in transit or stored at other sites was exposed. The company said those operations were unaffected. Delgado said inspectors would return after the clean-up to review the pipe failure and drainage system, while bank clients were asked to use nearby ATMs or electronic payments until deliveries normalise.
