THE Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has identified a flaw in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s implementation of cash withdrawal limits (CBN).
The central bank recently announced a policy limiting individual cash withdrawals from commercial banks to N20,000 per day, N100,000 per week, or N500,000 for corporate bodies.
However, in response to the development, the body’s Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, ACF, warned that the CBN’s insistence on implementing the wholly unrealistic policy would result in a catastrophic collapse of the economy’s informal sector.
In a statement issued on Friday, he stated that this is due to the fact that transactions in commodity markets, particularly in rural areas, are entirely cash-based.
The group also stated that Nigeria has the lowest financial penetration in Africa, with over 38 million adults lacking access to banking services, with “women, rural dwellers, Micro-Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, and Northern Nigeria” being disproportionately excluded.
It did, however, request that the CBN create a level playing field for a wide range of financial providers and encourage collaboration among them. Furthermore, ACF requested that the CBN enforce strict regulations that protect people’s money, as well as adequately inform, encourage, and prepare the public for the transition.
The group insisted that until the CBN addresses the challenges significantly, any “frog-jump” into a cashless payments system, no matter how well-intended, will only land the country in a bottomless pit.
