Cash-less policy to go nationwide in 2014 – CBN
Deputy Governor (Operations) of the CBN, Mr. Tunde Lemo
The Central Bank of Nigeria has concluded
plans to extend the cash-less policy to other states of the federation
before June 2014.
The Deputy Governor (Operations), CBN,
Mr. Tunde Lemo, said this at the 20th anniversary of the Nigeria
Interbank Settlement System in Lagos.
The programme was entitled, “The
Evolution to the Future Cash-less Nigeria: Positioning the Nigerian
Payment and Settlement Ecosystem for Cash-less Reality.”
The cash-less policy, which was
introduced in Lagos in January 2012, was extended to Abuja, Kano,
Rivers, Ogun, Abia and Anambra states in July this year.
Its aim is to reduce the dominance of cash as a means of payment in the economy.
The CBN deputy governor said in order to
ensure an effective nationwide rollout next year, the central bank would
collaborate with other stakeholders in the payment system to integrate
mobile phones into point-
of-sale machines.
A statement by NIBSS quoted Lemo as
saying, “We have been talking about how to enhance connectivity and one
of the things agreed was to work with some service providers. But beyond
that, we looked and decided what else to do, particularly outside Lagos
now that we have rolled out the cash-less policy in six other states.
“Today, we have licensed about 21 mobile
money operators; so, how do we now link mobile money to our PoS? If
mobile phones can serve as touch points, our transactions would go up
rapidly.”
He added, “We hope to roll out in all the
states by the second quarter of next year and we hope that by next
year, as we roll out more PoS machines, we have to see how we can
integrate the mobile phones into the network because in the hinterlands,
the challenges would be more.”
Lemo said the 20th anniversary of the
NIBSS was an opportunity to discuss how to continue to transform the
Nigerian payment system, adding that the value and volume of electronic
payment had grown significantly.
He said, “We haven’t done badly at all in
the last four years, but there is still a lot to be covered and we have
made a significant progress in the area of infrastructure provision,
particularly led by the cash-less programme of the CBN.
“We believe that if we continue to drive this, then we will make the payment system a lot more efficient.
“An efficient payment system is good for
the transmission of monetary policy and that is why it is important to
us at the CBN. It is also good for financial stability because a stable
financial system is seen through how efficient the payment system is.
“Once a payment system is in turmoil, it
affects the financial system. So, a very effective payment system is
going to be an effective anchor for the transformation of our economy
even as we strive to be one of the 20 biggest economies in the world by
2020.”
