The implementation of the Cashless Policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria is part of the responsibilities of the Bank but the Policy needs to be taken a look at to ensure that all issue are addressed.
Guests on the TVC News programme Journalists Hangout on Sunday made this assertion in their reaction to the letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari to help in addressing the newly announced policy by the Point Of Sales and Bank Agents Association of Nigeria.
The agents had written to President Muhammadu Buhari calling his attention to the fact the Policy will lead to the loss of Jobs for over 2 Million people across the Country.
Adewale Adeoye in his reaction to the letter said there are issues with the decision that when taken into consideration makes it imperative that another look is taken at the Policy.
He added that their is no completely Cashless Society but made copious examples of places like the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Iceland.
He said the Infrastructure is not good enough to be a cashless Society considering the kind of Society we still have and the Culture especially for People in Rural areas.
He disclosed that most Nigerians in rural areas operate cash based transactions and will be difficult to prevent them from having cash especially with the loss of trust in the Financial Sector and Other investment instruments.
For his part, Dare Odufowokan, said the Policy does not really take into consideration the peculiarities of the people of Nigeria where the Cashless policy is going to be implemented.
He added that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is not reading the room properly and that Policies are supposed to take the people into consideration when introducing policies.
He said the POS Operators have been doing a lot of good in the system including creating employment opportunity and ensuring Financial inclusion through their operation.
He gave an example of the situation is his community of Ode Remo which has more than 10 communities around it with the nearest bank serving all of them in Iperu Remo which is about 40 minutes drive away.
He however applauded the move to put more of smaller notes into circulation while also calling for more to be done to ensure the gains made so far in the Mobile Money operators, Bank Agents and POS Agents are not eroded.
On the Withdrawal limit, Adewale Adeoye, said it will not stop stealing by people because there will always be collaborators within the system who will aid stealing of public funds and aid criminality.
They both however agreed that the CBN needs to sanitise the Banking system to ensure that the current situation where banks get away with all sorts of bad practices stop.
