Bank inspectors support cashless economy, train stakeholders

To support the cashless economy initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Committee of Chief Inspectors of Banks in Nigeria has organised a three-day training programme for banks, discount houses, external auditors and law enforcement agencies in Lagos. The training programme, according to a statement made available to our correspondent, was aimed at adequately acquainting participants with the dynamics of the cashless economy initiative, ahead of its commencement of the pilot phase in Lagos State by January 2012.The statement quoted the second Vice-Chairman, CCIBN, Mr. Abbas Alhasssan, as saying that the cashless economy initiative was a grey area in this part of the world. "It is, however, a welcome development, making it imperative for chief inspectors of banks to equip themselves as well as other stakeholders for the challenges ahead of the pilot scheme in Lagos. At the end of the training, we expect participants to have very good understanding of cashless payments, regulatory perspectives, fraud and internal control requirements, among other issues," he added.Speaking on the initiative, a senior official of Shared Services Office, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Chidi Umeano, said it would enable the apex bank achieve about 30 per cent reduction in the cost of funds being passed by banks to customers. He said, "The cashless economy initiative has tremendous benefits for the people and the economy. It would reduce the cost of cash handling and cost of funds, with available statistics showing that the CBN and the banks would have spent over N200bn on cash management by 2012. This cost can be ploughed into infrastructure development. It would also mean that majority of Nigerians would stop subsidising the cash handling cost of heavy cash users." He added that available statistics showed that 10 per cent of branch transactions in Nigeria were above N150,000, adding that they made up about 77 per cent of the value of cash transactions in the countrys financial system.
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