The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said that while it is in full support of the recent cashless monetary policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it however kicked against the N20, 000 withdrawal daily limit.
It then counseled the CBN to review the cash withdrawal restrictions in view of the fact that many people still carry out trade with cash.
The ACF Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu in a statement noted that the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to kickstart the long-anticipated cashless payments regime in Nigeria with effect from January 2023, is well justified, perhaps even well-intentioned.
He said, “A huge amount of time and money is needed to print the currency and a lot more still to steer it through the system. The currency notes themselves have a shelf life after which they have to be replaced.
“CBN officials may have the best of intentions while contemplating this policy but evidently failed to consider the unintended consequences of implementing it in the way they have planned; consequences that may be extremely grave.
“If the CBN insists on implementing this wholly unrealistic policy of restricting individual cash withdrawal from the banks to N20,000 per day and N100,000 for a week or N500,000 in the case of corporate bodies, it won’t be long before we suffer a catastrophic collapse of the informal sector of the economy.”
He however observed that the CBN is aware that transactions in commodity markets especially in the rural areas are entirely cash-based, “The villager that brings to the market his chickens, beans, onions, goat or cows does not typically have a bank account or internet skills.”
He maintained that cash remains the overwhelming medium of exchange for much of the country particularly in the North, saying, “this should surprise no one as bank offices are largely unavailable even for people who are keen and have the skills to use them.
“Until the CBN is able to address these challenges substantially, a preemptive move or a”frog-jump” into a cashless payments system, however well-intentioned, will only land us into a bottomless pit,” he stressed.
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