‘Cashless Policy, Not Fully Functional In Rivers’

Although the Central
Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cashless policy has been implemented in Rivers State and five other states in the federation since October 1st 2013, the operations of the policy has not been in full force in the state.
This observation was made by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of Rivers State Microfinance Agency (RIMA), Mr. Innocent Iyalla Harry, in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
Harry said the banking system needs to build the people’s confidence especially on the many uses of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards.
“The banking system needs to continue enlightenment programme concerning how to use the ATM cards to pay bills, recharge phone, undertake money transfer and many other things”, he said adding that, “when people are given services they have confidence in, they make full use of it.”
The MD/CEO also noted that a lot of people from other countries like the Labanese and Indians, control the money which sometimes are repatriated to their home countries without passing through the banking system.
He said that illegal transaction in the name of money changing has made much money to be outside the banking system which would not help the full implementation of the cashless policy.
On the usefulness of the policy, he said that it has reduced the rate of armed robbery attacks in the state and other cash related crimes, adding that those that have complied with the policy find it very enjoyable.
“It is catching up but it will take a long time for the policy to be in full force in Rivers and other states that executed the second phase of the cashless policy implementation”, he added.
Apart from the FCT, the states included in the second phase of the policy are: Rivers, Abia, Anambra, Kano and Ogun.
Under the policy, all third party cheques above N150,000 can no longer be withdrawn across the counter and the maximum daily cumulative cash withdrawals and deposits transaction for both individuals and corporate accounts would be N500,000 and N3,000,000 million respectively, as there are charges on withdrawals that exceed these limits.