THE Central Bank of Nigeria and stakeholders in the financial services sector have said a robust cashless policy system is capable of increasing Medium, Small and Micro-scale Enterprises’ access to loans.
They spoke against the backdrop of the various challenges facing the cashless policy of the CBN in the country.
The stakeholders including the CBN spoke at a virtual event hosted by the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of First Central Credit Bureau, an independent credit intelligence firm, Deji Olamide, themed, “Harnessing the Benefits of Cashless Policy on Credit Allocation in a Developing Nation” recently.
Echoing the central bank’s vision around the cashless policy, the CBN Director of Banking Supervision, Haruna Bala Mustapha, noted that the intention has never been to eliminate cash “but to reduce the use of cash and encourage electronic payments using electronic channels.”
Mustapha, who was represented by Adeniyi Adekunle, observed that although Nigeria is largely a cash economy, the cost of maintaining cash has become a burden due to the many vices arising from cash-based transactions.
According to him, cashless policy has largely encouraged transparency, ease of doing business and access to loan for MSMEs.
“We see that it enables a faster and easier payment, you can do online transactions from the comfort of your home,” he noted.
