Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced a new date for the introduction of the cashless policy to other states of the federation. However, responding to the ensuing confusion and uncertainty among the banking community, the apex bank and a number of industry analysts say the hitches encountered in the pilot scheme in Lagos cannot undermine the efficiency of the policy, reports Festus Akanbi Initial reactions to the decision of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend the spread of the ongoing cashless policy from Lagos to other parts of the country last week were a combination of it-can-never-be- done-well disposition of some critics of the policy and a wait- and-see attitude of the others, which comprised the management of the apex bank and some financial analysts. The Suspension According to the initial timetable drawn for the roll-out of the policy, the pilot scheme, which began in Lagos State last year was expected to spread to other states of the federation as from January this year. However, the spokesperson for the CBN, Ugo Okorafor, explained that the decision to suspend the plan was to afford CBN the opportunity to correct all the anomalies in the pilot scheme of the policy in the Lagos area in the past one year. He said, “For now, the CBN has suspended the plan to introduce the policy to other states next year. The test run we did in Lagos showed some problems in the implementation. For instance, people complained there were no enough POS and ATM machines, which we also noticed. The problem of awareness was also there as some people said they were not well informed about the policy “So before we introduce it to other states, we want to correct the problems. There are some states that do not have enough banks and ATM machines like Lagos and provisions have to be made for the policy to work in those places. It will also afford the banks to upgrade their systems for effective operation of the policy. So when we are convinced those things have been put in place, it will be extended to other states,” the apex bank image maker had said.
source-http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/cashless-policy-shift-in-take-off-date-in-states-in-order-say-cbn-experts/135481/