The Central Bank of Nigeria has launched the cashless society project in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital last week.
The programme which attracted stakeholders, merchants, customers and other bankers was put together by the CBN and Access bank and held on March 29, 2012, at the main Banquet Hall, Hotel Presidential.
The event was well attended as eminent bankers including Elijah Irby of the United States Stock Exchange delivered paper on the critical issue of e-payment. A presentation was also made by Miriam Imevbore of Valucard Nigeria Ltd.
In her presentation, Mrs. Imevbore enumerated the benefits of cashless project which will create job opportunities, reduce risk in cash transfer from one destination to the other, bringing rapid economic growth and encouraging transparency and accountability.
She explained that the system will not totally eliminate cash from circulation but will encourage electronic banking.
The Valuecard representative said if Nigerians adopt the system it will go a long way to put the country in the committee of Nations.
Earlier, Mr. Victor Etuokwu of the Access Bank said Access Bank has been in existence since 1989 with about 10,000 staff and have branches in Africa and the United Kingdom. He positioned that the cashless project will be used to pay salary of workers, account transfer, payment of bills and is very convenient to operate.
Delivering a paper tilled “NIBSS Readiness for Cashless Economy Project,” the representative of Niyi Ajao of the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) told participants that the rate of money in the circulation have slowed down businesses especially in the area of granting loan to customers. pointing out that the cashless project will increase the rate of doing business in Nigeria as NIBSS is capable of transfering funds through the electronics.
He said NIBSS represent all the banks but noted that right now they have only six branches in Nigeria including Port Harcourt.
The NIBSS representative said the cashless project which will be done through e-payment will also reduce corruption and help save time from going to the bank for withdrawal.
Briefing the press after the programme, the Deputy Project Lead on the Cashless Nigeria Project who is also a Principal Manager with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Eme Eleonu, described the project as fantastic and exposing the tempo which is also a proactive move by the Access Bank in trying to sensitize the Rivers people on the impending policy and also on the revised policy which will take place in January.
Mr. Eleonu said the Merchant Engagement forum is necessary to give ample time to people to learn the new way of transacting business which will be cashless soon, saying that all the merchants are in full support of the process.
On how this message could reach the grassroots and local communities, he said very soon the cashless programme will reach the communities as there are plans to engage them through adequate publicity.
Answering on the issue of fraud in e-payment system, the Central Bank principal Manager said the CBN has done a lot to mitigate fraud, knowing many criminal will like to switch to cyber crime, but assured that the CBN is on top of the situation. He pointed out that they have created the Nigerian Electronic Forum which checks fraud related cases.
Charting with journalists after the event, Mr. Charles Dim, the MD/CEO of Everyday Supermarket, Port Harcourt, told the press that it was a welcome development as merchants had been waiting for the opportunity to come. While hoping that it would not look like other failed Nigerian projects, Mr. Charles Dim said they discussed extensively on the charges because they knew the cashless project would help tremendously.
On how to educate his customers, the MD/CEO said a lot of promo would be done through the radio, newspapers and television, so that customers could fit into the system, but pointed out that it was imperative that the CBN should take the lead on the publicity.
Charles Dim also stated that since the project is from the Central Bank, jobs would be created for the youths to drop from armed robbery which is not as trade.
It would be recalled that in recent years most African countries have adopted measures towards a cashless economy and it has been projected that by 2015, transactions through e-payment would increase and Nigeria is joining the rest of the world in this direction.
History also showed that business transaction started with the barter system, shell, coins, paper and now e-payment. It is obvious that other businesses like churches have started the process of using the e-payment in the cashless society. ###
Pius Dukor
