The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has reiterated that the cash-less policy of the bank will not affect low-income group adversely as being speculated.
Sanusi made the remark at the opening of the three-day 17th Seminar for journalists organised by the bank in Akure on Wednesday.
The CBN had in January launched the cashless policy in Lagos as a pilot scheme, with a plan to launch it nationwide in 2013.
“There is a subsisting myth that the cash-less policy will hurt the low-income group adversely. In truth though, many of them cannot, with the volume of their transactions, qualify for the cost that the cash-less policy attracts,’’ he said.
Represented by Mr. Sam Olofin, a CBN board member, Sanusi said that a recent survey carried out by the bank indicated that only 10 per cent of daily banking transaction was above N150,000.
According to him, 10 per cent accounts for majority of the high value transactions.
This, he said, suggested that the bulk of the banking population subsidised, the costs that the tiny majority incurred in terms of high cash usage, resulting in a lot of money circulating outside the formal sector.
Sanusi said though the policy had challenges like every other policy, the banking penetration level in the country was still low and needed to be improved.
Commenting on the benefits of the policy, he said that the cardinal strategies of the programme aimed to reduce drastically the volume of cash in circulation in favour of electronic form of transaction.
“The cash policy will help achieve the CBN objective of expanding, depending and modernising the payments system and also galvanise the CBN in ensuring that Nigeria ranks among the top 20 economies of the world by 2020.
Sanusi said the CBN cash-less policy was designed to break the traditional barriers hindering financial inclusion for millions of Nigerians and bring low-cost, secure and convenient financial services to urban, semi-urban and rural areas across the country.
He urged the media to join the apex bank in its effort to educate Nigerians on the importance of the policy to the economy.
Mrs. Rafat Yusuf-Adeyemi, the Akure branch Controller of the bank, said the policy illustrated the gradual and radical movement of the entire payment system from the use of physical cash to the adoption of other non-physical cash mode of payment.
She said the policy would help to eliminate high cost and high risk of cash handling as well as reduce high subsidy in cash management.
“It will reduce high proportion of fund outside formal banking system and high inefficiency and corruption,’’ she added.
The theme of the three-day seminar is “Cash-Less Policy in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and prospects’’.
Source: Punch
