Cashless policy: LCCI advocates zero account opening balances

BY NAOMI UZOR

Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advocated for the opening of accounts with zero balances, saying it will boost the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial inclusion strategy.

The LCCI’s President, Mr. Goodie Ibru, while reviewing the recommendations made from the post field survey of the cashless policy from Lagos also challenged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to push for more stringent laws and enforcement against financial crimes as well as intensify awareness campaign for the actualization of the new cashless policy to work in Nigeria.

He also called on the apex bank to ensure that Government initiate policy that would reduce the import duty and other charges for importing machines as incentives to speed up the spread of the (Point of sales) facilities in Nigeria.

”We challenged the CBN to push for more stringent laws and enforcement against financial crimes as well as intensify awareness campaign with emphasis on the usage benefits of the facility so as to encourage increased usage for the actualization of the new cashless policy to work in Nigeria.

“We also call on CBN to encourage banks to introduce opening of accounts with zero balances for customers to encourage the non-banked population to have/use Automated Teller Machine cards which will be used to further the implementation of the cash-less policy” he said.

According to him, the CBN should put in place for banks, technicians to be trained on how to manage/repair the ATM, and they should be stationed at different locations for easy accessibility.

“The phone numbers of these technicians should be given to the outlets where the machines are installed. Workshop/ seminars should be organized by the CBN for trade/business associations to give them better orientation about the policy” he stated

He said it is pertinent to note that as the phenomenon of electronic platforms continue to gain acceptance and wider applications in our social and economic lives, the e-payment component becomes more critical to the success of e-shopping, e-ticketing, e-governance, e-book publishing, and lots more.