CBN Says Cashless Scheme Will Go Nationwide Next Year

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to extend the cashless policy to other states of the federation before June 2014, according to  Tunde Lemo, deputy governor (Operations.

Lemo who spoke at the occasion marking the 20th anniversary of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) in Lagos 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.

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.

Lemo  said  “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.”