Cashless economy: Nigeria must not be left out in new development, says CBN

Director, Banking and Payments System Department, Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Gaius Emokpae has said the implementation of cashless economy will commence in Lagos by January 2012,as the apex bank has already kick -started campaign to sensitize Nigerians on the cashless economy policy in the country.The Director said this recently when he said they are starting the awareness creation in Lagos because the State is the hub of commercial activities in the country.Emokpae revealed that after Lagos attention will be driven towards other states such as Rivers, FCT, Enugu among others. He added that the cashless policy does not mean that Nigerians would not use cash; but it would be minimised or reduced, noting that effort will be made to promote the electronic payments usage for security reasons.He maintained that electronic payment system is very convenient, seamless and easy, maintaining that it is natural for people to resist change and expressed that more awareness would be created through the media and also campaign that will cut- across states.The CBN director further explained that the world is a global village and Nigeria must not be left out in the new development going on around the world today, explaining that if Nigeria does not move with the rest of the world in the electronic payment, the country will be left behind.Emokpae said that the mobile payment system has to do with money and trust, saying there are a lot of Nigerians In America and Europe who are sending money through western Union Money Transfer, adding that there were case where they could not get their money, stating that people wanted a situation where money could be sent to their parents in the village, saying the mobile payment will make the process easy.On security of the Mobile payment, he said, 'as we are moving on, we will begin to review policies and when we see the needs we begin to address them, it's ongoing in process, the measures are already been put in place, there is no need for fear because only few have been licensed and capacity building is going on by CBN as far as those that have been licensed.
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