LAGOS – Mr Folashodun Shonubi, the General Manager, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlements Systems (NIBSS), said that the volume of cashless transactions doubled every six months since its inception.
Shonubi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that the cashless policy was progressing but at a slow pace.
He urged Nigerians and business persons to embrace the government’s cashless policy as it would reduce financial crime and encourage prudent financial management.
“We’ve had issues, we’ve had challenges but the beauty is, it’s been changing, it’s been improving.
“The volume of transactions we’ve seen under cashless doubles every 6 months; so, it shows that there is some adoption.
“I won’t deceive you in saying its perfect but we are seeing quite a lot of adoption of people using cards, people using transfers in the bank.
“It is more common now for somebody who wants to pay his friend or his relative to do a transfer.
“So we are seeing adoption but it’s slow because this is about a change in behaviour.
“A change in culture, a change from cash for some people, what they can see and count, to trusting something that they say is in your phone that you cannot see.“
Shonubi also urged the Federal Government to integrate other business persons operating in rural areas in the government’s cashless policy through sensitisation.
According to him, this will make them to get short term returns on their investments.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently made cashless transactions worth N502.85 billion at its last cashless policy awareness campaign among market women in the country.
The CBN also revealed that a total of 9.9 trillion transactions worth N93 billion was made through Mobile Money from January to October 2013.
The apex bank also said that it established a ‘Know Your Customer’ account which customers were expected to open with a zero balance using a passport photograph.
The bank said the idea was to encourage the 34 million Nigerians in the financial system to be on the cashless transaction platform. (NAN)
