Nigeria Coins ATM is World’s First

Nigeria will make history as the first country in the world if she goes ahead with the introduction of cash machines that dispense coins, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations has shown.

There is no known place in the world where there is currently a coins dispensing ATM, according to experts who should know.

The cash machines that dispense coins otherwise automated teller machines (ATMs) is part of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) currency restructuring policy known as “Project Cure” halted by the federal government.

Under the “Project Cure”, CBN planned to change all notes from N20, and lower into coins, a move aimed at encouraging Nigerians to imbibe the culture of spending coins.

According to the CBN, coins were more economical because they last longer than paper or polymer notes.

The new cash machines that dispense coins resemble existing vending machines that dispense Naira notes.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations showed that an ATM that dispenses coins must have “add-on” feature that will make them adapt to coins dispensing.

Otherwise, a brand new coins ATM would have completely different mechanical component as well as casket- which is the unit where notes or coins are stored for dispensing by the machine.

It was gathered that the conventional note dispensing ATM cost between $15,000 and $20,000 depending on the brand.

The major brands use in the industry are NCR and Wincor Nixdorf.

Coins ATM would cost some additional $7,000 to put together, according to experts who know better.

But Chidi Umeano, head of Shared Services, CBN, said the apex bank will facilitate the introduction of the coins ATMs to hasten the acceptance of coins by Nigerians and change the misconception about their use.

But James Agada, managing director, ExpertEdge Software one of the vendors of ATM in the country explained that the regular ATM that dispenses note cannot be upgraded to dispense coins because the mechanical component of the coin ATM is different as it is designed to dispense coins only.

Nodding in agreement, Mr. Peter Iwegbu, managing director, PN Consulting, an electronic banking consultant said that what is needed is to facilitate the inclusion of a process called ‘add-on’ to the ATMs.

“Good enough, the existing ATMs have the add-on feature that will easily make them adapt to coins dispensing.” Iwegbu added.

Umeano however insisted that, “It is very possible to achieve Automated Teller Machines that will dispense coins. This add-on feature can be activated on the ATMs at any time by the CBN and this is not new because it is being practiced in advanced countries.

A previous attempt to introduce new coins to the economy in 2007 failed because most people refused to use them.

The federal government has however halted its plan to introduce a banknote five times larger than the biggest denomination in the country.

The Central Bank had in a statement published Friday, said it made the decision to stop the plan to print the N5, 000 notes at the urging of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The introduction of a N5, 000 comes less than a decade after the country introduced aN1, 000 notes.

But it would have been the first comprehensive review and CBN said it will take advantage of latest technology.