CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday said there’s no going back on its implementation of the cashless policy on deposits and withdrawals in line with its mandate to ensure an efficient payment system.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, spoke while briefing journalists shortly after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
He also apologised to bank customers for the inconveniences the newly introduced cashless policy will cause.
“I sympathize and regret inconvenience cashless policy will cause bank customers. Cashless Policy is not intended to punish hardworking Nigerian businesses,” he said.
Emefiele said that contrary to claims in some quarters that many Nigerians would suffer the negative impact of the policy, only about five to ten per of bank customers would be affected.
He said if the Nigerian economy is to compete effectively with those of developed countries, then a payment system that encourages the use of other non-cash channel was desirable.
“The Policy is to encourage the use of electronic means of transaction and reduce but not eliminate cash based transactions.
“It is meant to discourage those merchants who insist on cash payments. They do not need to pay the deposit charge is they receive money electronically,” the CBN tweeted on Friday.
