Delta, 30 other states get March 31 deadline to commence cashless policy
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given March 31, this year as deadline for the commencement of its full blown Cashless Policy in the country.
Following the deadline, Delta State as well as 31 other states in the country that were not captured in the Pilot programme, few years ago, would experience commencement of the Policy after the March 31 deadline.
The Director, Corporate communications of the Apex Bank, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor disclosed this in Asaba, the Delta State capital, during a two-day Fair Sensitisation campaign organised by the Bank.
According to Okoraofor, the Policy, which came into effect few years ago, with states such as Anambra, Ogun, Lagos, Abia and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) serving as pilot states for the implementation of the policy, does not mean total “restriction” on cash transactions but a limitation on the volume of cash transactions.
To drive the policy, according to Okoraofor, the bank had provided charges as penalty for those who go beyond the
required cash limit in their various bank transactions.
For the limits, an individual is expected not to do transactions above N500, 000 just as corporate organisations have a limit of N3, 000, 000 per day. Anything above the limits attracts a charge of two per cent of the additional rate, just as corporate organisations attract three per cent for additional transactions
“After March 31st, 2020, according to our plans, we will commence full blown implementation of our cashless policy. With the policy as we said, it is not that people should not use cash but rather, that people should reduce the volume of cash that they use and embrace electronic payment systems which are cheaper and more convenient.
“The use of the electronic payment system, as it were, is even more beneficial to the nation’s economy as it conforms with the global best practice.
“We have given enough time for people to adjust to the system. We have postponed this policy several times and this time, we are going on full implementation of the policy.
“We have been educating people; more jingles will still come out on the policy so that people will understand why they need to key into the policy.
“We have provided charges on cashless for those who go beyond the limits,. The charges does not mean that we are interested in making money; rather, they are meant to discourage people from excessive use of cash which costs us a lot of money to produce the bank notes.
“At this rate, it is only obvious that we cannot continue that way because, for instance, we spend more than N20 to print a N20 note; that is just one example” Okoroafor said.
