CBN’s Cashless Policy Timing is Right – Expert

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
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