Cashless Lagos: There is moderate shift to e-payment – CBN

CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

In what could be regarded a scorecard to the cashless Lagos exercise, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that there is an over 90 per cent awareness of the cash policy in Lagos state with a moderate shift to e-payment usage by retail and wholesale card users.

Making this revelation in Lagos at the just concluded card expo, Head, Shared Services Office of the CBN Chidi Umeano said the cumulative number of Point of Sales (POS) terminals deployed /connected to Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) CTMS stood at 117,412 as at April 29, 2013.

This according to him, represents an increase of over 249 per cent above the 5,992 recorded as at end of January 2012; stressing that”the target of purchasing at least 10,000 POS terminals per vendor has been met, while the number of registered merchants has reached 184, 182 as at April 29, 2013.”

The apex bank introduced the cash-less policy in 2011 and commenced its implementation in April 2012 in Lagos. Its main objectives were to drive the development and modernization of the Nigerian Payments system in line with vision 20- 2020, reduce the cost of banking services, promote financial inclusion, enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation and curb some of the adverse consequences associated with huge usage of cash in the economy.

With 90 per cent awareness recorded in the pilot scheme, CBN is has said that from July 1st 2013, the policy will be extended to 6 other states; Abia, Abuja, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers. Umeano listed other achievements under cash-less Lagos as: recording over 90 per cent drop in card related fraud incidences. This he attributed to attainment of changeover from magnetic stripe based payment tokens and channels to CHIP +PIN compliant channel and tokens in 2010.

Others are: that Credit/ Settlement Risk has been reduced by shorter clearing cycle; establishment of payment system Policy and oversight office in CBN which is saddled with the effective monitoring and regulation of the payments system among others.

According to him, 4 notable organizations as key stakeholders seized the opportunity to appraise critique and review the impact of the policy- level of awareness and also its adoption within the state. These organizations were; Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFinA), Electronic Payment Practitioners of Nigeria (ePPAN), Financial Derivatives Company Limited and Lagos State Chambers of Commerce and Industries.
The Sun.