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The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said while it was in full support of the recent cashless monetary policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it counselled the apex body to review the cash withdrawal restrictions.
It said the advice became necessary in view of the fact that the many people still carry out trade with cash.
Thus, ACF noted that it is afraid the consequences of implementing the new policy might have a reverse effect on the economy..
This was contained in a statement issued by the Secretary of General of the forum, Murtala Aliyu and made available to newsmen in Kaduna on Friday.
ACF 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 contended that usually the cash based economies are notoriously costly, inefficient and prone to attacks by evil people.
“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.
” Cash is the lifeblood of the underworld: difficult to trace and quite convenient for terrorists, money launderers, smugglers, vote buyers, etc.
However, noted that” yes, the less cash available for all these criminals as the CBN is trying to achieve, the better for law abiding citizens. That said, 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.
It observed that, “More than anyone, CBN knows 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.
It 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, it declared.
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