Cash limit policy in interest of Nigerians, Economy-Okunade

Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele is to appear before the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The Green Chamber summoned the CBN scribe following the new cash policy of the Apex Bank, which set withdrawal limits for individuals at 100,000 naira a week and 500,000 naira for companies.

The lower Chamber also ordered the CBN to suspend the cash withdrawal policy given the economic and social difficulty it will inflict on Nigerians until it explains to the House the impact and significance of the new policy.

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The CBN governor insists that the policy is for the good of the economy. After a recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr . Emefiele said the President directed the policy be implemented. He says so far about 1 trillion naira old notes have been returned to banks who are now in possession of the new 200 naira, 500 naira and 1000 naira notes.

According to the CBN governor, banks will start issuance of the new notes before December the 15th, maintaining that the January 31 deadline for return of all old notes remains sacrosanct.

Chairman Ikeja District Society of ICAN, Sesan Okunade speaking on the CBN’s cash withdrawal limit said, one thing we should be aware of is that whenever there is a change, there is bound to be reactions from people.

Mr Okunade who said the decision by the CBN is in the interest of the citizen and economy also added that he supports the policy because of the advantages inherent in it.

According to him, people will always react whenever there is a change, there will always be issues but those can be addressed.

“What we need to do at this point in time, is to see how the infrastructure can be fortified in such a way that it will enble online transactions to be carried out seamlessly.

“If you travel out of the country, you want to buy even your gas, you use your card, you don’t pay cash like what we do at the filling station.

“The cost of even printing the currency is huge and everything is going digitalized.

“When cashless policy was introduced, the idea of POS came and now people prefer to use the POS rather than going to the bank.

“When you bring out a policy, it brings out the creativity in everyone as every problem creates opportunity.

“The benefits to be derived from this policy is much more than what we are seeing on the surface.

“Holistically, it’s going to help the system as it will ensure proper documentation, where activities can trailed on the go.

He added that for individual business owner, they will be able to monitor activities by just requesting for their statement of account.

The CBN also has a lot to do working on the bank customer service, how swift they respond to complaints from customers.

Speaking on debit charges for online cash transfers, Mr Okunade said the cost is not to CBN but to the people who have put in the channel that we are making use of which must be paid for.

On the issue of National Assembly and politicians reactions to the new CBN polic, Mr Okunade said ” you should not expect politicians to welcome this, but if this flies, it’s going to checkmate the activity of vote buying, we will be able to trace those things.

“If you think within yourself, you are going to put together millions of naira that you withdraw from the bank and call the bank manager to bring to your house, the answer is NO.

“Credible people who do not have the same money, can now out and where people will vote for credibility, at least reducing the aspect of vote buying is a plus to our economy.”