The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is expected to lead other experts at a two-day conference on cashless policy jointly organised by De Novo Strategy and Media and the Reach Legal Consulting and Training firm in Lagos.
The event tagged, ‘Nigeria Transiting to a Cashless Society: Charting the Way Forward’, commences on June 24. According to the organisers, the conference is targeted at banks, other financial institutions, telecommunications companies, mobile money service providers, on-line stores, companies with e-payment activities, regulatory bodies and agencies with e-payment activities, among others. The CBN is the lead sponsor.
Some of the associations that are also expected at the event are the Association of Licensed Mobile Payment Operators (ALMPCO); Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators (ALTON); Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH); e-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (e-PPAN); Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) and the Institute of Data Processing Management of Nigeria (IDPMN), among others.
The CBN recently announced plans to extend the cashless policy to Rivers, Kano, Ogun, Anambra and Abia states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from July 1. The CBN had explained that the states and the FCT were chosen because of the large volume of cash transactions in their major cities such as Aba, Abeokuta, Kano, Port Harcourt and Onitsha. The cashless policy is aimed at reducing the dominance of cash in the system.
