The Nigerian government urgently needs to re-visit the full implementation of the cash-less policy in the northern part of the country, now more than ever. Not only do desperate times call for desperate measures; desperate times like this point to inevitable measures such as this.
For one, so many of the measures currently in place, such as the telecoms shutdown across Zamfara and parts of Katsina State have placed hundreds of thousands of people in direct threat of losing their means of livelihood. A full implementation of cashless policy will be greeted with several grumbles but it is a necessary sacrifice. It is definitely not the biggest sacrifice that will have to be made if implemented. People are still in all forms of severe pains as we speak, so we might as well add this policy to it, this time making the ‘pains’ justifiable.
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At the heart of terrorists and criminals alike are funds mainly for the supply of weapons, food, hard drugs and so on. Of course funds obtained via ransoms and sale of rustled cattle form parts of the proceeds, which contribute to the continuous existence of the bandits. But we have seen evidently that the ‘heavy’ amount of funds required for high caliber weaponry and cannot rule out the obvious possibility that funds are being obtained from ‘big funders’ who are channelling money without any trace; and in cash. With the full implementation of cashless policy, there are bound to be transactions’ audit trails that will help law enforcement agencies to trace where illicit funds are being pumped from. The means of exchange through electronic transfers implies that there will be permanent records of senders and receivers of funds; and this can go on and on.
The main reason for the suspension of the policy was that the economy in the North is ‘hard currency-based’ and most people, for various reasons, could only transact in hard currencies. Whether the transaction volume of the was high or low is immaterial. But then again, as it stands, most of the rural markets stand the risk of being permanently shut down due to the security challenges of today, and the cashless policy measure will in no way trump the hardships that will be caused by the latter. There is a wide variety of electronic channels for all categories of customers and those who do not have access to smart phones or data. This will also be a good strategy for banks to capture the un-banked and for an increase in the database of users (through Bank Verification Number enrolments). This is surely a win-win scenario worth exploiting.
I understand that several states and institutions are already adhering to this and cash-lite charges are being taken on defaulting customers’ accounts. However, states with recorded security challenges need not only enforce this, but also make it compulsory for people to transact businesses. They could however ask the banks to waive charges on some transactions. This will be a game changer and should be a no-brainer in the on-going fight.
Aliyu Sulaiman is a freelance writer based in Sokoto
