The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, has said that the bank remains committed to achieving the vision of providing Nigeria with a secure, robust and accessible payment infrastructure.

A statement from the website of the bank on Friday quoted Sanusi as saying that the bank had taken deliberate actions in recent times to focus attention on electronic payments as a veritable payment service option.

This, it stressed, was geared towards the promotion of rapid financial inclusion and increased economic activities.

He said, “The success of a country’s payment system is evinced by perceptions of its security, robustness – that is, the ability to cater for a wider range of preferences – and its ready access to the end-user.”

Speaking further, Sanusi said that the cash-lite policy was introduced to, among other things, meet the FSS2020/Vision 2020 requirements for regional and international integration as well as modernise the payments system in Nigeria.

Reviewing the previous payment system, the CBN governor recalled that the financial system in Nigeria was largely characterised by a cash dominant and weak electronic payment platform.

He, however, expressed satisfaction that there was greater speed in financial transactions, attributable to the evolution of Information Technology, which he described as key to the transformation in payment system.

Sanusi said, “That information technology is a key part of this transformation is almost a misnomer – IT is the very fabric of such transformation. Far from being merely a support function to operations, IT has evolved as a key enabler of competitive advantage, innovation and security.”

The CBN governor said that the presidential directive of 2009 that electronic payments should be adopted for all government employees’ salaries, suppliers and contractors helped to add verve to the acceptability of electronic payments among Nigerians.

This, he noted, prompted the apex bank to up the ante in ensuring that safe and qualitative payment services were rendered to Nigerians at reasonable cost while at the same time guaranteeing adequate consumer protection.

He said the CBN, in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee in 2010, embarked on a shared services programme to drastically reduce the industry’s cost to serve with attendant positive impact on lending rates and bank charges.

Source: Punch (by Ademola Alawiye)