The Central Bank of Nigeria has said the planned implementation of its cash-less policy outside Lagos State in stages may be delayed further.

The CBN Deputy Governor in charge of operations, Dr. Tunde Lemo, said this during a seminar, titled, ‘Embracing Federal Government’s Financial Sector Reforms for the Rapid Transformation of the Nigerian Navy’ in Lagos on Friday.

Earlier this year, CBN had said it would end the pilot scheme in Lagos by December 2012 and implement the policy in stages, by extending it to five states and the Federal Capital Territory on January 1, 2013. However, Lemo hinted that things might not go as planned.

While fielding questions from journalists on the sidelines of the seminar, he said, “There is a possibility of delaying the cash-less policy nationwide. The CBN has not taken the decision but it is likely that we may have to spend a little more time in Lagos so that we can get it right and be able to deal with all the challenges before we roll out nationwide.”

When asked what challenges the bank was facing, Lemo said, “Mainly connectivity, ensuring the POS machines are working 24/7.”

Speaking on the proposed N5000 denomination, the deputy governor said the introduction of the note would reduce printing cost. He said although the actual cost of printing could not immediately be ascertained, the amount of N49bn being bandied around was a rumour.

He said, “This figure (N49bn) being bandied around is false. In 2009 we spent N47bn printing all our notes, coins and denominations. That figure went down to N45bn in 2010 which is a confirmation that the higher the denomination we print, the less the cost and of course this N49bn is not what we’re going to use in printing N5000 denomination.

“The introduction of N5000 note will make us reduce printing cost. We don’t know the actual cost but as I said, we have not engaged printers but we know it is cheaper to print one note of N5000 than to print five notes of N1000 and we are going to save a lot of money.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Accountant of Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Kehinde Komolafe, said the implementation of the cash-less policy would pose some challenges to the armed forces.

He said because the policy stipulated a cash handling charge on daily cash withdrawals or cash deposits that exceeded N500,000 for individuals and N3m for corporate bodies, the cost of dealing in cash would become very high.

Komolafe said the Navy welcomed the implementation of the cash-less policy on its capital, overheads and personnel cost accounts but considered it necessary to advocate the exemption of the armed forces’ operations account from the cash-less policy because it might affect the ability of the armed forces to deploy funds in a timely manner to contain security situations.

Source: Punch/Eniola Akinkuotu