Lagos – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday said the cashless economy policy would not lead to job losses in banks.

The CBN Director of the Shared Services, Mrs Eyitayo Matthew-Daniel, gave the assurance at a  meeting of the Committee of Chief Inspectors of Banks (CCIOB) in Lagos.

According to her, those staff that may be affected will have to be deployed to more challenging jobs within their banks.

Matthew-Daniel said that the apex bank had cleared the usage of 5, 000 point of sales (POS) terminals.

She said that the apex bank hoped to clear another 40,000 by December 2012 toward  successful implementation of the cashless policy.

She said that the cashless policy, expected to start by mid-December in Lagos was in collaboration with the Lagos State Government, adding that the state had the largest number of all bank branches.

Matthew-Daniel said that Lagos was chosen because of its involvement in the area of e-payment, adding that the adoption of the e-payment would also drive down the cost of operation among the banks.

She said that the service providers were being carried along on the value chain in order to achieve the best from the e-payment.

The CBN official said although there might be technical itches in the commencement of the cashless policy, it would fully start by December.

She said that there would be continuous monitoring to ensure that standards were met.

The director said that there was card arbitration framework that had been in existence for a while, which was being updated with the objective of protecting the consumers. (NAN)