Mr. Francis Barde, Head of Corporate Affairs in Union Bank of Nigeria, has said that the problem of security and infrastructure could pose challenges to the success of new cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Barde told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the provision of adequate security gadgets and personnel would provide conducive environment for electronic transactions in the economy.

He said that CBN should provide adequate security to protect the electronic facilities that would be provided for the new system.

“The ability of CBN to provide proper security for the ATM machines in case of breakdown of law and order will determine the level of success the policy will achieve,“ he said.

Barde called for more public enlightenment, especially for the illiterate market traders so that they would be able to cope with the modern technology.

It will be recalled that the new cashless policy took off in Lagos on Jan.3, 2012.

Under the policy, individuals cannot withdraw more that N150,000 cash from the banks in a day while corporate entities cannot deposit or withdraw cash above N1 million.

The policy stipulates sanctions for cash withdrawals above the stipulated limits.

Barde said that the CBN should be aggressive in providing the basic infrastructure that would aid the success of the policy.

He said that the bank had started to distribute Point of Sale (POS) terminals to its various branches, but could not ascertain the number that had benefited.

Barde said that more ATM machines would be deployed to areas where business activities were thriving and advised all banks to protct their ATM machines across the country.