The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) area office in Kano says it cleared a total of 272,020 banking instruments valued at N464.7 billion in the immediate past financial year.
This development is coming against the backdrop of a total of 316,265 instruments worth N596.3 billion cleared in the 2011 financial year by the bank in the area.
Ameena Pindar Abubakar, the controller in charge of the branch, made this disclosure at the weekend during an annual ‘Kano bankers and customers dinner’ held in the commercial city.
According to her, the reduction in value and volume of instruments cleared in the year under review could be attributed to the ceiling put in place by the Federal Government which limited single cheque transaction to a maximum of N10 million.
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In order to consolidate the e-payment policy of the government, she said that the bank had with effect from the beginning of this month (1st June 2013) introduced a cheque truncation window.
“I am happy to inform you that the Central Bank of Nigeria had introduced cheque truncation where clearing activities will be conducted on line through Nigeria Inter Banks Settlement System (NIBSS) with effect from June 1, 2013.
“A central clearing house for all the transaction in this regard is being done in Lagos. The process has already started, and Kano branch has kick started since on 21st March, this year (2013)”, she explained. Abubakar disclosed that as a result of this development, the a nation’s apex bank had with effect from May 31, this year, shut down the operations of all clearing houses nation-wide.
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