Cashless: Experts Warn Against Corporate Greed

Financial experts have warned against the possible hijack of cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by a few individuals or corporations and urged the apex bank to move against limits of transaction cost which could inhibit competitiveness and efficiency in the system, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.
They however, reported a bit of cheering news for consumers and operators of the cashless regime indicating that Nigeria now accounts for the greater number of ATM machine deployments in Africa.
The growth in the ratio of automated teller machine debit card (ATM) customers, according to the experts, would increase from 10 million (in circulation) to about 100 million in the next five years due to ongoing policy drive to move the economy from cash transaction to e-channels.
Prof. Pat. Utomi, director of Lagos Business School, (LBS) at the one-day cashless conference: Payment thought leadership breakfast series1 held in Lagos at the weekend, urged the apex financial house to move against limits of transaction cost which could inhibit competitiveness and efficiency in the system.
“The transactional costs will limit the competitions. The use of transactional costs to roll out cash coupled with lack of trust in the system affect the process. The operators are yet to get it right in services; hence people encounter bottlenecks during transactions,” said Utomi.
Prof. Utomi warned against “first movers’ apparition; if not tamed the process would be hijacked by few individuals and corporations. A transparent and incorporation of interested players, technological enhancement, and massive education will boost public confidence.”
Chuma Ezirim, Group Head, eBusiness at First Bank stated that the introduction of cashless policy will propel the nation’s economic drive towards attainment of Vision 20 20-20 goal.
He opined that mobile money payment and other echannel transaction platforms are all technology driven and would open up Nigeria for global competitiveness. Ezirim noted that already Nigeria has become the leading economy in Africa with greater number of ATM deployments.
“Statistics available indicate that Nigeria tops the ATM market in Africa and that means fortune for the players in the industry. Going by the payment system, customers could do their normal basic financial transactions on a daily basis by making payments for goods and services or by engaging in person-to-person transfer directly on their GSM phones,” said Ezirim.
He advocated for a “changed management” system with the aim of educating the public, transactional costs reductions, and closing the gap between the middle class traders and the operators for understanding of the policy.
Tunde Lemo, deputy governor (operations) at the CBN admitted that it was not yet uhuru in implementation of the cashless economy policy. He stated that the CBN has established a performance monitoring office for effective surveillance of operators in the system. The aim is to monitor “efficiency, availability and sustainability of the e-payment scheme.”
Lemo also said the CBN was networking with other government agencies like NIPOST to link up rural dwellers where Point of Sale (PoS) machines are yet to be deployed. 
Adeyinka Adeyemi, managing director, Intermarc Consulting ask that the CBN be magnanimous in providing incentives to encourage market players and consumers. Incentives should include internet facilities for the effective implementation of the scheme.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek’s research indicated that despite the optimism by market operators, Nigeria still lags behind South Africa and other emerging economies on ATM deployment ratio-per-population density.
Comparatively, Nigeria has 10 ATM cards per 100 persons against South Africa’s 55 per 100.