TheNewsGuru

Tag: Cashless Policy

  • Cash swap has brought hardship to Nigerians – Lawan

    Cash swap has brought hardship to Nigerians – Lawan

    Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said that the poor implementation of the Naira swap has brought hardship to millions of Nigerians.

    In a statement he personally signed, Lawan stated that while the policy was laudable but that its poor implementation had beclouded the merits therein.

    In the statement Lawan said: “I sincerely empathise with fellow Nigerians the hardship being experienced across our land in the implementation of the currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    “Even though we all agree on the merits of the policy, its implementation gap, unfortunately, brought enormous hardship upon citizens across the country.

    “However, I wish to assure us that with appropriate intervention by the government and the collaboration of all stakeholders, this hardship will soon fade away and normalcy will be restored to our daily livelihoods.”

  • APC PCC clarifies Tinubu’s stand on CBN’s cashless policy

    APC PCC clarifies Tinubu’s stand on CBN’s cashless policy

    The APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) says the party’s presidential flag bearer, Sen. Bola Tinubu, is not in any way against the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity of the PCC, while addressing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja said Tinubu was only concerned about the effects of the Naira swap and petroleum scarcity on the masses.

    He said while the APC presidential candidate was not against the cashless drive of the apex bank, the timing for its implementation was, however, wrong.

    “Our candidate made this an issue and alerted the government. The government should find a solution. I can report that as at today, Abuja does not have problem of fuel anymore.

    ”I learned that in Lagos fuel scarcity had also eased. I’m sure in other parts of the country fuel will soon be delivered to many stations and this crisis will be over.

    “For the currency swap, as the CBN calls it, our candidate is not against a cashless economy. He’s an Accountant. He understands how these things work. He knows the benefits to the economy,” Onanuga said.

    Onanuga wondered how the CBN cashless policy was expected to work in a country where about 60 per cent of the population do not have bank accounts and relied heavily on cash to transact their daily businesses.

    He, however, added that the decision of the CBN to pursue cashless policy was based on faulty and erroneous statistics that could not be validated against reality.

  • Cash crunch relief: Obaseki orders free bus services by ECTS

    Cash crunch relief: Obaseki orders free bus services by ECTS

    The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has directed that beginning from today, Thursday, February 16, 2023, all Edo City Transport Service (ECTS) buses are to provide free services to passengers, as a means of reducing the effect of the cash crunch experienced by the people.

    The directive is applicable to all routes and is effective till Monday, February 20, 2023, after which further announcement would be issued on the matter.

    The government calls on the people to remain calm and law-abiding and assures that normalcy will be restored shortly.

  • Empowering telcos to reduce the pains of cashless policy – By Okoh Aihe

    Empowering telcos to reduce the pains of cashless policy – By Okoh Aihe

    On my birthday, my prayer for Nigeria is not a cashless crunch that sends nearly everybody to the very nadir of life, but a prayer that Nigerians feel the kind of verve and optimism that have enveloped me this day, and build the kind of hope and audacity that ridicule adversity. 

    Apart from a pervasive befuddlement across the nation arising from the bungling of a very brilliant policy, two stories which may be quite the experience of a number of people across the nation, occupy the very nerve of my thoughts this morning.

    Remember, it is my happy day, as I write, February 14, so, don’t share a tear. Instead have a good laugh because laughter has a way of bringing healing and replacing pain with sweet sensations. 

    Story one. I have a PoS (Point of Sale) or Mobile Money agent close to where I live. He would usually handle my little cash challenges and make life easier for an older person. On this very day, sometime last week, I did not see him for nearly a full day until he came late in the evening to try to execute some transfers. According to his story, he woke up at 3.30am in the morning, leaving his young wife at home to go and queue for cash in the bank. When he got to the ATM (automated teller machine), he was number 52; meaning some people may have gotten there hours before him. The machine dispensed cash to 30 people and stopped. He proceeded to another bank where his number was 15. The machine served only 3 people and stopped. All day, the young man roamed from one bank to another only to discover that luck can be a rarity in a season of government’s confusion. 

    Story two. Another PoS agent not very far away from where I live, to share in the grief and sorrow of those life has nearly forgotten, the very people whose resilience and amenability to the vagaries of life can proof useful lessons to curators of policies introduced on the wings of deus ex machina. Over a week ago, this young lady and her husband whose business used to enjoy some level of boom, suddenly started to stock iced soft drinks and doughnuts. What is the meaning of this, I asked. Oh a change in line of business while waiting for the situation to sort itself out. I don’t have to endanger the survival of my family, she vowed. How would they pay? Oh, through transfers. 

    This has become every man’s story, every woman’s story. Overnight, small businesses that form the corner pillar of any economy have vanished and the voices of those ordinary folks are too weak to be accommodated by the designers of policies aimed at putting Nigeria ahead of the rest of the world in a cashless commitment to modernity. 

    There is a concourse of opinions that the cashless policy of the government, promoted by the Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, is not a bad one but only hurriedly introduced. It would therefore make sense for people of goodwill to rally together to save it from a sudden death that may be very damaging to the nation. 

    In the face of rising anger towards the policy, a couple of people told me within the past few days that two primary problems exist on the path of faithful implementation of the policy. The first is the scarcity of new Naira notes, which only the Central Bank governor can solve through accommodation of variegated opinions to achieve results, while the second is external, the absence of reliable communications backbone that can carry the plethora of services being introduced to the telecom networks. This remains a core problem, prompting a source to tell this writer that if the people in the city are witnessing acute difficulties occasioned by the new policy, those in the rural areas must be close to hell in their daily experiences. 

    Why would somebody be that despondent in summarising happenings in parts of the countryside? Just wait.

    An industry source told this writer that the biggest obstacle to the implementation of the cashless policy is the telecoms sector, whose infrastructure is challenged severely at the moment. The networks were not prepared for what is happening now and, as a result, they are stretched because of the volume of transactions. Services are slow and very frustrating because of the absence of capacity. However, there is a glimmer of hope as the telcos may have upgraded their capacity in some areas because they need a minimum of 3G network to transmit the election results. 

    A source within the regulatory authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, corroborated that position when it said, “The transaction backbone is a complete mess. Your network is as good as the weakest link. You can have very good capacity in your radio access network but if your transmission is not good, it is a very big problem.”

    It doesn’t matter whether it is 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G or any other G you may want to add in order to boost your sense of achievement, the homogeneous thread is the transmission backbone which is presently very fickle. The fibre optics links between base stations form the most reliable backbone as against microwave which is very unreliable. 

    The more reason that the rural areas or even some of the underserved areas in the cities and the rural communities will suffer more is that most of these places are covered by 2G base stations which are not primed for data transactions. 

    Another NCC source lamented the failure of the InfraCos to bring relief to far-flung areas of the country. The Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) concept was designed by the NCC to enable some companies, licensed on a regional basis, to provide fibre optics points of presence in all the 774 local government areas in the country. The market was divided into 7 regions, with Lagos designated as a market of its own because of its vast business opportunities. There was some counterpart fund for the companies, some kind of seed support specially set aside by the regulator. The operators were to bridge service gaps across the regions of the country. The laudable idea was comparable to the OpenReach of the UK which is managed by Ofcom, that country’s telecoms regulator. 

    Speaking in January 2015 at the presentation of an InfraCo license to MainOne Cable, former Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, Dr Eugene Juwah of blessed memory, had said: “When the 7 InfraCos finally come on board, they are expected to take broadband infrastructure from the ocean and connect them to the cities and hinterland across the country to make Internet ubiquitous in Nigeria. This will in turn impact positively on the economy.”

    Hopes were high then periscoping the telecoms future of this nation. But things happened. There were security challenges in parts of the north. The situation festered even more because some of the states of the federation saw telecom operations as low-hanging fruits to mobilise easy revenue, and therefore would not give right-of-way (RoW) except at premium price. Frustrated by their greed, IHS returned its license for North Central. 

    “We were supposed to bring point of service (PoS) to the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs). That has not taken off at all,” my source fumed.

    Years later when the country created a cashless policy that should have been driven seamlessly by the telecom sector, it has suddenly turned out that, apart from the failure of the government to be fastidious in the planning and execution of such policy, the industry has its own challenges, that would make us feel some more pain in the implementation of a simple policy. 

    Remember, I am writing this on my birthday and therefore, no lamentations. What should we do? My source made three bold suggestions. One. The nation needs a bold and purposeful leadership that can fiberise the length and breadth of the country. Two. The Central Bank should create a special Forex window to enable telecom operators access funds for timely rollout of services instead of forcing them to the parallel market with all its uncertainties. Three. The security forces should provide cover for  operators as they try to roll out services or supply diesel to base stations. 

    Meanwhile, something urgent should be done to remove people from the present distress and desperation they are experiencing.

  • Naira redesign: I’ve nothing against CBN – Tinubu

    Naira redesign: I’ve nothing against CBN – Tinubu

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, says he does not have anything against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Naira re-design and cashless policy.

    Tinubu said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, adding that he is only concerned about its disruptive implementation and the hardship it brought on the generality of Nigerians.

    This, he said, was especially because most Nigerians currently could not access their hard-earned monies and could not meet obligations.

    The former two-term Lagos state governor noted that the past few weeks had been a challenging one for Nigerians, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

    He added that equally challenged were the poor and vulnerable masses and those whose very survival depended on daily cash transactions.

    “They have felt the brunt of the combined problems of scarcity of fuel and new Naira notes.

    “We feel the pains of our market women and artisans who have experienced low sales because customers do not have cash to make purchases.

    “We hear the loud cries of farmers in rural areas and hinterlands who have been forced to sell their produce at much lower prices so they don’t lose out completely.

    “We hear every Nigerian dealing with the consequences of the roll-out of the cash swap programme,” Tinubu said.

    He however noted that while the scarcity arising from the supply limitations of the new Naira notes was still with us, he was encouraged about reports that the fuel queues across the country was easing out.

    This, he said, followed better supply of fuel to filling stations.

    He said we were now however confronted with how to bring quick, sustainable solution and relief to Nigerians on the challenges still posed by the non-availability of the new Naira notes.

    According to him, this is necessary to ensure that social and economic activities can move on unimpeded and normalcy immediately return to our financial services sector and overall productivity of the country.

    He recalled that to seek a quick resolution, the National Council of State met on Feb. 10, and advised the government and the CBN in particular, to push more new Naira notes into circulation.

    He said the council also advised that the old notes be allowed to remain a legal tender by ensuring supply gaps relative to infrastructural limitations were bridged by recirculating it to ameliorate the pains caused by the scarcity of new ones.

    “We agree with the wisdom of the Council of States as a necessary starting point to begin redressing the unintended consequences of what would have otherwise been a good policy that required mainstream adoption.

    “For the records, I and my running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima, and our campaign council do not have anything against the CBN Naira redesign and cashless policy in principle.

    “We are only concerned about its disruptive implementation and the hardship it brought on the generality of Nigerians who currently could not access their hard-earned money and could not meet obligations,” he said.

    Tinubu said he was also concerned about the attendant consequences of the policy on the informal sector where majority operate.

    He added that in spite of the challenges and current difficulties, we are a country of resilient, bold and courageous people who don’t succumb to hard times.

    “We have always overcome our most difficult times and come out better as a people and a nation. This time will not be different. We will make lemonade out of our current lemons,” he said.

    To bring immediate relief to Nigerians, Tinubu urged the CBN to announce that the old and new Naira notes, especially the non-withdrawn notes and coins, would co-exist as legal tender for the next 12 months.

    He said this would immediately remove growing tension in the country, eliminate panic reactions by the populace and allow time to scale up infrastructural gaps around alternative payment options to cash.

    “We advise the immediate suspension of associated charges on online transactions and bank transfers and payments via POS until the current crisis is fully resolved.

    “This cost should be considered a roll-out expense by the CBN to incentivise the envisaged shift to alternative transaction channels for both the financial services consuming public and those in charge of implementing the scale-up programme,” he said.

    He said the CBN should also mobilise all money deposit banks, payment platforms to show clear commitment and timelines on expanding their infrastructure and support services.

    Besides, he suggested that Fintech companies with capabilities into currency swap programme for the next 90 days should be brought in to help decongest banking halls and ATM points where people lined up for hours.

    Tinubu said the CBN and other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies should form an Inter-Agency Action Committee.

    He said the committee should be for immediate oversight over the cash supply gaps from the Nigerian Security and Minting Company.

    He said the committee should also deal with issues around capabilities and turn around time to meet the needs of the informal sector and unbanked people.

    “The CBN, National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Ministry of Information, State and Local Governments.

    “With their relevant organs in both the public and private sectors should commence a major public enlightenment and sensitisation campaign,” Tinubu also advised.

    He added that this was critical to further educate and empower Nigerians on the new Naira and cashless policy for better understanding and mainstream adoption.

    “As leaders, our commitment to our country everyday must be on how to make life better for our people, and we are called upon not to waste the opportunity

    “Our task now is to restore hope in the country by implementing these steps to energise our people that we can do big things for a better future and shared prosperity.

    “We can build upon this citizen-focused policy challenge to offer a template on how governance should work for the people,” he said.

  • BREAKING: Council of State endorses CBN cash swap

    BREAKING: Council of State endorses CBN cash swap

    The Council of State meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, approved the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN cashless policy with a proviso that the apex bank must make available enough new notes to ease the pains of Nigeria.

    The meeting which lasted for over four hours at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja, had in attendance former heads of state and president Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and Goodluck Jonathan, while former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, joined the meeting virtually.

    Two former Chief Justice of the Federation, Alfa Belgore and Mahmud Muhammad, were also in attendance.

    Jointly briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governors of Taraba, Darius Ishaku, Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, AGF Abubakar Malami, said generally the policy was accepted by members but raised concerns about the implementations.

    Ishaku said: “The CBN was advised to make money available in quantum. The old money can also be recirculated to ease the suffering of the poorest of the poor.”

    Sanwo-Olu, on his part said that Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, and Inspector General of Police (IGP), briefed the council on a state of preparedness for the 2023 general elections, and assured that they were fully prepared.

    Malami said: “We are on course as far as election preparedness is concerned.”

  • Naira swap/cashless policy may affect troops in the fields – NSA

    Naira swap/cashless policy may affect troops in the fields – NSA

    The National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Mohammed Monguno (rtd), has said that the change of currency and cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), if not well thought out, may affect operations of troops in the field.

    Monguno made the observation when he appeared before an Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on change of currency and cashless policy on Thursday in Abuja.

    Represented by the Head of Defence Unit, Rear Admiral Abubakar Mustapha, the NSA said that even in advanced countries, such policies could affect operations of troops if not well implemented.

    “Because of the sensitivity of some of this information that will come and bordering on security, there are things we cannot say in the media.

    “Globally, military operations, even in first world countries, such policies, if not well properly thought out, will affect some certain operations.

    “Some of our soldiers are deployed in places where they cannot actually access digital means of paying for their daily subsistence; that is the main issue that NSA has been talking about.

    “It is important that this committee sits down and articulates better ways of actually addressing these issues,” he said.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Rep. Ado Doguwa (APc-Kano) said that the committee was intrested in the implications of the policy on national security.

    He said that the committee would interface with major stakeholders to determine the effect of the policy on the economy.

    Doguwa said that from what the committee had so far gathered, the policy posed a challenge to agriculture, economy and security.

    According to him, it is unpopular among the people, it has caused hardship and it may affect the forthcoming election.

    Doguwa adjourned the meeting to Feb. 10 for the committee to meet with the Minister of Finance and the leadership of Printing and Minting as well as INEC boss.

  • Cashless policy: Reps Cttee submits report, to monitor CBN cash releases weekly

    Cashless policy: Reps Cttee submits report, to monitor CBN cash releases weekly

    …ask CBN to restore over-the-counter transaction to the old limit before the new policy takes effect

    The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on cashless policy on Tuesday submitted its report and recommended that cash releases by the CBN would be monitored on a weekly basis.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports this came to fore after the adhoc committee led by the House Leader , Alhassan Ado- Doguwa interfaced with the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele on same day(Tuesday) before finally submitting its report.

    Alhassan Ado-Doguwa while submitting its Ad-HocCommittee report stated that the Committee finally got to meet with the Central Bank governor and had earlier also met with heads of commercial banks.

    ” The Committee in analyzing information from all quarters found out that the new notes are scarce in commercial banks.

    “The Central Bank governor agreed with the position of the House that the old notes can be redeemed by banks at any time of presentation.

    The recommendations of the Ad-Hoc Committee include that:

    I. The Ad-Hoc Committee will continue to work with the Central Bank and commercial banks to ensure the cashless policy and cash-swap policy will not affect Nigerians adversely and that the CBN will submit a weekly report to the Ad-Hoc Committee on currency releases to commercial banks.

    II. CBN should operationalize the provisions of Section 20 (3) of the CBN Act to the effect that the currency gets redeemed after the deadline.

    III. The CBN is to ensure the availability and issuance of new notes to Nigerians

    IV. That the ad Hoc Committee continue to work considering that the House is going on break while the issue at stake requires further attention of the Special Committee.

    V. Restore the over-the-counter transaction to the old limit before the new policy was introduced.

    Commendation by Speaker:

    The Speaker of the House, Rep. Gbajabiamila commended the Ad-Hoc Committee for its dedication and diligence while commending the Honorable members for the sacrifice to see the matter resolved in the interest of Nigerians.

    He expressed hope that the suffering facing Nigerians over accessing the new notes will begin to abate following the CBN governor’s assurances and that the supply of the new notes will improve drastically. Rep. Gbajabiamila berated banks that hoard the new currencies and supply in bulk to influential customers at the detriment of other Nigerians. He also called on the CBN to make the new notes more available to Nigerians across the country, both in rural and urban areas of the nation.

    The Speaker also called on stakeholders in all arms of government to work together for the good governance of the nation and Nigerians.

  • INVESTIGATION: Scarcity of new Naira notes causes hardship for Nigerians

    INVESTIGATION: Scarcity of new Naira notes causes hardship for Nigerians

    The newly introduced naira notes and revised cash withdrawal limits announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to curb crime, inflation and vote buying during elections, have left many citizens stranded and frustrated, TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) investigation has revealed.

    More than one month after the official launch of the new designs, many Nigerians in both urban and rural areas, have been unable to access the new notes as countdown to the January 31st deadline for the mop-up of the old N1000, N500 and N200 banknotes approaches.

    The apex bank has insisted that the highest denominations of the naira in old banknotes will cease to be legal tenders by the expiration of the deadline and many Nigerians eager to beat this time limit, have flocked to commercial banks to deposit their old cash in exchange for the new banknotes.

    Scarcity of Redesigned Banknotes

    Contrary to expectations, commercial banks have continued to dispense the old banknotes.

    A disappointed Nigerian Charity Agber, claimed that many Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) around her area in Abuja failed to dispense cash and when she went into the banking hall to make withdrawals over the counter, she was paid with old banknotes.

    “I needed to withdraw yesterday and there were no ATMs dispensing cash around my area. So, I had to go into the banking hall and the queue was something else. When I eventually got paid, it was still with the old notes,” she said.

    Another bank customer Tayo Adewunmi said: “The deadline is affecting the common man because the new Naira notes are not in circulation as expected. They are being paid with old ones like what a bank I visited on Monday did.”

    In the same vein, Omoruyi Emma added: “Frustration is taking its toll on the citizens, all over Abuja almost all ATM had no money to dispense and if you go the bank, they have only old notes and the deadline is so close how does one still withdraw old notes at this time? Whom did we offend in this country?”

    A staff with one of the leading commercial banks told our reporter that they were still dispensing old notes because they did not have new notes to dispense to customers.

    Some business outfits have already stopped receiving payments made using the old banknotes, a move that can have effects on the Nigerian economy.

    Revised Withdrawal limit

    In addition to the challenge of scarcity of the new banknotes, individuals are only able to withdraw a maximum amount of N100, 000 per week, while corporate organisations have a limit of N500, 000 per week.

    As a result, some banks have now restricted the amount individuals can withdraw daily to N20, 000.

    For example, the Guaranty Trust Bank in Bodija Ibadan the Oyo state capital allows customers to withdraw a maximum of N40,000 Daily, while the Access bank in the University College Hospital (UCH) is allowing a daily withdrawal of not more than N20, 000.

    The Director of Banking Supervision in the CBN, Haruna Mustafa, said that withdrawals above the set weekly limits of N100, 000 and N500, 000 for individuals and corporate organisations will attract a processing fee of five per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

    Mustafa explained that only denominations of N200 and below are expected to be loaded into ATMs and the maximum cash withdrawal via Point of Sales Operators (POS) is now N20, 000 daily.

    “In compelling circumstances, not exceeding once a month, where cash withdrawals above the prescribed limits is required for legitimate purposes, such cash withdrawals shall not exceed N5million and N10million for individuals and corporate organisations respectively,” he stressed.

    CBN’s Efforts Towards Financial Inclusion

    The apex bank has also launched a cash swap programme in partnership with super agents and deposit money institutions (DMBs), which it says will promote financial inclusion, as it particularly targets citizens in rural areas without a bank account.

    The programe which became effective on 23rd January will enable citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange the old naira notes for the redesigned banknotes.

    Through the cash swap programme, the old N1000, N500 and N200 notes can be exchanged for the redesigned notes or the existing lower denominations from N100 and below which remain legal tender.

    Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is set to invite the CBN over the alleged scarcity of new naira notes and has asked for an extension of the deadline for swapping the old notes with new ones by six months.

    However, it remains to be seen if the apex bank would bow to pressure and extend the deadline for the return of old bank notes.

  • Cashless Policy with loads of headache – By Okoh AIhe

    Cashless Policy with loads of headache – By Okoh AIhe

    I like the story of the madman and the fire in the bush which I always tell with relish. In one of those remote villages in Edo State where the harmattan could hit with ferocious force, the madman had set a little fire to warm himself. All of a sudden the whole bush was on fire. Still warming himself up, he really didn’t care about the inferno building up, until he was asked what happened here?

    The answer for him was simple. I only set a little fire here to warm myself. I really don’t know about that huge thing billowing up there.

    When I look at the recent monetary policy on withdrawal limits put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the mixed reactions that have greeted a seeming laudable project, my little smile is that the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, doesn’t look like the kind of guy that would ignite the bush and really won’t care what happens to the whole environment.

    I also look at the flip side of the little guy or the rural woman out there, like my mother, during her lifetime, when she would go to the market with a couple of yam tubers, so that she could sell and be able to feed the family. What would have been her concern with withdrawal limits? Like the madman, she wouldn’t bother herself with the conflagration, inferno or anything you may like to call it, because she didn’t have pile of money out there. Her primary goal would have been to quieten the butterflies in the stomach.

    That was her concern in 1983, when a certain government initiated a similar policy they thought would receive hosanna from the ordinary folks. Instead, the policy brought pain, immeasurable pain, that as an undergraduate, continuing at school, which was already a challenge, got extremely complicated. People suffered. People died. Unfortunately they were not even lucky enough to make the stats of the departed.

    In fairness to the CBN Governor, some of his policies have always targeted the ordinary folks, to include them in the nations monetary system. For instance, a major objective of the Payment Service Banks (PSB), which was recently revved up, is to enhance financial inclusion in rural areas by increasing access to deposit products and payment/remittance services to small businesses, low-income households and other entities through high-volume low value transactions in a secured technology-driven environment.

    What then is the difference? The nation’s currency, the Naira, has been redesigned. People with cash have been asked to deposit same in the banks. All of a sudden, monies from sealed rooms and even graves, are showing up in the banks in dematerialised form!

    The weekly withdrawal limit has been pegged at N100, 000 for individuals and N500, 000 for corporate bodies. Daily withdrawal even at POS is N20, 000.

    In some quarters there is near dancing in the streets. This is the best thing to have happened. It will curb fraud, extinguish vote buying and put a damper on the ability of terrorists to fleece their victims of humongous sums of money. The country really is headed in the right direction!

    The apex banks sees it as a further consolidation of the cashless policy introduced under President Goodluck Jonathan. Addressing the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Instituions, Mrs Aishat Ahmad, Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, who appeared for screening alongside her counterpart, Edward Lametek Adamu, Corporate Services, said the latest policy would boost the cashless policy of government.

    “The cashless policy in Nigeria, was first introduced over 10 years ago in 2012 starting in Lagos State. In 2013 the policy was later extended to six additional states and the Federal Capital Territory. Since then, Nigerians have continued to embrace the cashless policy by using electronic channels for their transactions, whilst the Nigerian payments system and telecommunications infrastructure continued to develop.”

    Really? How often does  Ahmad leave the Central Bank vaults for the village to see the amount of electronic transactions going on there? There could be a similitude of good things happening in the cities as far as electronic transactions are concerned but not in the villages, where networks remain a nightmare, where people queue for hours just to be able to withdraw some money as little as N2000.

    Will this curb corruption? Perhaps. Look at the story this way, without the sweetness it contains. For over seven and half years, this administration maintained a double forex window – the  Central Bank rates and the black market rates. For all these years people benefited, collecting dollars at the official rates and selling them off at the black market. At a time it was more than N300 difference in one US dollar. Now the new monetary policy is targeted also to address the forex market problems; who then were the beneficiaries of such a convoluted scheme? Will they just be allowed to go free, like a bird in the air, away from the fowler?

    What then is the difference between what the CBN Governor has done and other practices before him? Pretty straight, I believe. And the Governor should be sincere enough to confront the truth and make amends to bruised sensibilities. Here it is. From the moment he nursed any interest to run for the highest office in the land, his office became pigmented with the hue of a politician, and every of his little step bred suspicion. For the first time his tenure at the Central Bank is becoming so controversial that there are now instances of people demonstrating for, or against him. It was never so. It will remain very difficult for him to demonstrate that his actions are without biases.

    Is the nation ripe for a cashless policy? Somebody told me the story of four major markets in Nigeria, which include: Apongbon Market in Lagos, the main market in Kano, Onitsha Market in Anambra State, and Ariaria Market in Abia State. In these markes, any sum of money in cash could be mobilised at any time. The Cable News Network (CNN) had once reported that there was so much cash available in the Lagos market that it was possible for a woman to bring out over $100, 000 from under the mat in the small shop. Perhaps the people have to be encouraged to put their money in the banks instead of preferring to transact business in cash. There may be very little the government can do about that age-old practice.

    I have spoken with some people and none had anything against it except that it should have been introduced in phases. A process has to start at some point but the people must find a reason to be part of it. Quite a few people believe that in introducing the policy a clear difference should have been made between the city and the rural areas where it is still pain to do electronic transactions.

    In addition to the foregoing, is the infrastructural gap in the rural areas, some miserable level of development which is only understandable on the grounds that the telecom operators will first direct investment to areas that could give handsome returns on investments before sinking money in rural areas. This is not a crime but a matter of investment decisions. In summary telecoms services in most rural areas are still very challenged; in fact, the telecom backbone is too weak for such transactions. It thus behoove the government to be more analytical, preemptive and forward looking in introducing some policies.

    The way to go in this modern world is to embrace technology but it is going to be pretty difficult for President Mohammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor, Emefiele, to explain to rural folks that this cashless policy was not introduced to punish them.