The
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s cashless policy has been described as timely by
an expert in the electronic transaction and payment industry.
Director
of Payment Processing at Interswitch, Mr. Akeem Lawal said that the policy came
at the right time thereby providing the proper environment for stakeholders to
improve on the existing infrastructure and electronic payment expert in the
country.
Also,
he said, that the cash-less policy has significantly changed the infrastructure
landscape nationwide.
He
said in terms of infrastructure the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) remains the
most popular, but what has grown is the infrastructure for mobile payment, Point-of-Sale
(PoS), and internet payment as well as other forms of electronic transfers and
transactions.
As
said by him, these payment infrastructures have been largely accepted by
Nigerians and the number of Nigerians embracing these alternative channels is
growing steadily daily.
“What
the cashless policy has done is enabled people to make the right investment,
and it has created the right environment for people to consider these other now
tested and trusted alternative payments,” he said.
Lawal
recalls that Nigeria is predominantly cash based economy as almost all
transactions run on cash and that has its inherent risks and inefficiencies.
According
to him, there is a lot of wastage and inefficiencies in the system because of
the huge amount of cash that is being used for transactions.
Therefore, Lawal noted some countries that have been able to reduce the amount of cash in circulation daily have witnessed immediate improvement in their economies because of the efficiencies they have introduced, which he said, “is the thrust of the CBN’s cashless.”
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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