The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
has said that the N150, 000
restrictions on third party
cheques currently in Lagos state
would become nationwide from next year. Deputy Director, Banking and
Payment System Department, CBN,
Mr. Emmanuel Obaigbhona
disclosed this at the 2nd annual
conference/retreat of
Committee of E-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH) held in Calabar
yesterday. Under the cashless policy, third
party cheques with values above
N150, 000 cannot be cashed
across the counter but through
bank accounts. This restriction
was however implemented only in Lagos state as part of the
cashless Lagos initiative, which
to test run the cashless policy. “The N150,000 maximum limit
imposed on third party cheques
for across the counter
withdrawal that is only available
in Lagos, from January next year
is going to be nationawide”, Obaigbhonna said during the
panel discussion at the
conference. The theme of the CeBIH
conference was, “Developing a
Market Structure that works:
Challenges & Prospects for the
Nigeria Payments System’.
Chairman of CeBIH, Mr. Chuma Ezirim commended the CBN and
NIBSS for the various policies
introduced to drive electronic
payment in the country. “CeBIH is committed to
development of an efficient
payment system in Nigeria. The
industry however needs to
recognise that electronic
payment is not a service but a business and it has to be driven
by operators instead of
regulators. Obaigbhonna said while the
industry has made significant
progress in the implementation
of the cashless policy, there is
need for collaboration among
stakeholders in the electronic payment system to improve on it. “In terms of development in the
payment system, if we look at
our country, we would observe
some major improvements since
2007. The aim of the CBN basically is to
promote electronic payments
and make sure that we have a
payment system that is not only
effective but a payment system
that is nationally utilised and international recognised. “We are looking at a system that
even the poor can use at
affordable rates. “But to achieve this, CBN needs
the cooperation of all operators
in the electronic payment system.
For example all the policies
introduced by the CBN to drive
electronic payments were based on suggestions and
contributions of banks especially
the Bankers Committee. “The role of the CBN is that of
catalysts. We are there to push
the system forward but we
depend on the knowledge of the
operators and stakeholders in
the system”. He said while operators are out
to promote their individual
interest, the CBN is committed to
promoting the national economy
and this was the philosophy
behind the introduction of the cashless policy. The cashless policy he, said was
primarily aimed at enthroning
electronic payment. “And we are
making progress but we need
ideas from this group. We
suppose to come together because CBN encourages
collaboration. We need to hear from you, you
are the experts on electronic
payment. It is from your own
perspectives that a lot of things
happen. You tell us your own
views, we look at them, and we invite you to discuss, and we
would be able to come up with
something for the industry. He called on CeBIH to
collaborate with the CBN and
NIBSS. Banks need to go to the
Nigeria Interbank Settlement
System (NIBSS) and understand
what is happening there. We put NIBSS in the center, NIBSS is
actually in charge of retail
payments and the National
Central Switch (NCS), operated
by the company is designed to
achieve interoperability which is critical to driving electronic
payment in the country. So we
need to collaborate and work
with NIBSS.
www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/cashless-restriction-on-third-party-cheques-to-go-nationwide-next-year-cbn/