From Noah Ebije Kaduna
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has noted that the cashless policy embarked upon by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is capable of landing the people into a bottomless pit, no matter its good intention.
In a statement on Friday by the Secretary General of the Forum, Murtala Aliyu said officials of the apex bank might have had the best of intentions while contemplating the policy, but they failed to consider the consequences of implementing it.
“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. Cash based economies are notoriously costly, inefficient and prone to attacks by evil people,” said the group.
Though it acknowledged cashless policy was a good idea, “we do need to remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. 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’s 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. More than anyone, CBN knows that transactions in commodity markets, especially in the rural areas, are entirely cashbased.
