VENTURES AFRICA – Market analysts have suggested that the cashless policy which has been introduced to 7 states in Nigeria, should be extended to transactions involving foreign currency, as that will aid in the development of the country’s economy and maintain financial stability.
The policy, which was flagged off in Lagos – Nigeria’s commercial hub – at the start of 2012, is aimed at reducing the high usage of cash, minimize the cost of cash management and encourage the use of electronic payment channels by the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The new governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele who, at his inaugural briefing early this month, said that the CBN hoped to better align the cashless policy, and analysts have now suggested that extending the policy to transactions involving foreign currencies would allow the operations of the CBN to be transparent and will also enhance data integrity, local newspaper BusinessDay reported.
An analyst at Standard Chartered Bank, London, Razia Khan, believes that a move in the direction of extending the cashless policy would yield positive results.
“The other equally important benefit, of course, is that it boosts transparency and creates an audit trail. Discouraging the use of cash may not completely stamp out payments of an illegal nature, but it can help to minimise such payments,” said Khan.
Also, an Energy analyst, Friday Ameh referring to the new CBN governor, noted that the recent trend of dollarizing the economy needed to be looked into.
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