Cashless Policy rakes in N10billion From PoS In August – CBN
Busolami Idowu
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that for the month of August it recorded an estimated N10 billion ($64 million) on Point of Sale (PoS) transactions, showing an increased adoption of its cashless policy initiative.
The apex bank added in an official statement, that over 591,000 users utilised a PoS machine on a monthly basis between April and June across the nation.
Commenting on this, CEO Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN), Mrs Regha Onajite, said the figure of the CBN showed that the policy was gaining momentum in the West African country.
“This means the initiative is doing well in the country… and we need to sustain it”, she said.
Debunking reports that the scheme was recording low acceptance, she posited “Going by the CBN’s recent figure for August, it shows that transaction volume in mobile payment has increased”.
Elaborating on this, the CEO said that before the introduction, Nigeria had less than 5,000 PoS terminals across the country, pointing out that with more people embracing it; the number has now grown to 200,000 machines, concluding that the use of PoS and other forms of electronic transactions was increasing.
In order to enforce strict compliance on the cashless initiative, the CBN had on June 1, 2012, made it compulsory for Nigerians and the private sector to embrace the cashless policy and had insisted on a new set of rules guiding transactions of goods and services in the country.
The bank had said the policy was aimed at propelling the Giant of Africa’s vision 2020 requirement which include modernising its payment system, reduce the cost of banking services, improve effectiveness of monetary policy, lower high security and safety risks, curb corruption, encourage more electronic-based transactions and reduce the amount of physical cash circulating in the Nigerian economy.
