By Babajide Komolafe

The Central Bank of  Nigeria (CBN) is considering imposing limits and charges on cash lodgements as part of measures to discourage use of cash for transactions.

Mr. Emmanuel Obaigbona, Deputy Director, Domestic Payment Division disclosed this at the first eNNOVATORs Breakfast series organised by financialtechnology magazine last week.

It would be recalled that the apex bank last year imposed limit on value of cheque transactions. It banned cheque lodgement above N10 million saying such transactions should be done electronically through the Nigeria Interbank  Settlement System.
Obaigbona, who represented the Director Banking and Payment System Department, Mr. Abayomi Atoloye  said the CBN  is considering imposing similar limit on cash lodgement  such that lodgement above the limit would attract charges. “We want to discourage a situation whereby people pay cash for huge volume transactions”, he said, adding the is part of the apex bank’s efforts to de-emphasise the use of cash in the economy.

He said, “Over the next few years, our focus will be on strengthening the institutional and regulatory frameworks that would encourage financial inclusion of unbanked and promote more usage of electronic payment as clearly enunciated in the Payment Systems Vision 2020. In particular, the followings are expected to drive the usage of electronic payments in the near future:

“The application of mobile technology for financial services especially in rural areas will ensure that a large percentage of the population outside the formal banking system would have access to financial services using one of the three scenarios of card-based, account-based and virtual account. 

“The draft National Payments System Bill which is undergoing approval process is expected to address legal barriers to electronic payments such as the admissibility of electronic evidence in the law court.

“The adoption of National Identity Number (NIN) as part of the requirements for opening of accounts is expected to address the challenge of unique identifier that affects the widespread of credit cards in Nigeria.

“The adoption of electronic payments by Organizations for payment of allowances to employee, pensioners and social beneficiaries will also boost card payment in Nigeria.

“The shared service project championed by the Bank is expected to reduce cost of card transactions which will encourage widespread usage of card in Nigeria.”