The Central Bank of Nigeria has reached an agreement with the E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria to be its major partner in carrying out massive mobilisation and sensitisation of the grass roots as the cashless initiative moves to Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun, Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory.
The mobilisation will include series of interactive sessions with non-organised markets, trade associations, market leaders and other stakeholders, E-PPAN indicated in a statement on Monday.
According to the Executive Secretary of the association, Mrs. Onajite Regha, if a greater percentage of Nigeria’s population embraces the alternative forms of payment, the move to transform payment style will be far-reaching.
“This will ultimately bring more of the money in circulation into the banking sector, lowering bank costs and improving the transmission of monetary policy,” she added.
She said the experience the association had during the cash-less Lagos mobilisation, would also come to bear as it moved out into the other states, adding that the main purpose of the awareness campaign will be to educate the grass roots on the various alternatives to cash such as the mobile payment, Point of Sales, Internet banking, electronic transfer, among others.
She noted that the non-organised markets, trade associations, market leaders were very important entities in the economic value chain because of their large volume of cash transactions on daily basis.
She assured, “We will speak to them in the language they understand explaining the various benefits and convenience of the e-payment channels.
“We want to let them know that their mobile phones can do a lot more than answer phone calls and that using e-payment is safe, convenient and easy and also that it can help them build relationship with their financial institutions, giving them more opportunities to financial products, which is the whole essence of financial inclusion. Our overall goal is to win them over to the place where cash is no longer king.”
The cashless initiative commenced in the other states on July 1, 2013, while the charges are to begin by October 1, 2013. The awareness campaign is expected to reach the nooks and crannies of the states to carry the people at the grass roots along before the implementation of the charges.