Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Muhammad Sanusi Lamido has cautioned Nigerians not to be misled by politicians into opposing the implementation of the new cashless policy of the Federal Government.
Lamido, who is also the former Emir of Kano, said that the Politicians are angry because they are more negatively affected than ordinary Nigerians.
The former CBN Governor said that he was responding to numerous enquiries coming to him from people who wanted to know his opinion on the ongoing naira redesign and cashless policy.
According to him, it’s the Politicians that stockpiled the naira notes which they intend to to bribe electoral officials, security agents, the judiciary and others with physical cash just to get to power “and begin another rounds of stockpiling,” that are against the policy.
“Now, with cashless policy, there would not be enough physical cash for the Politicians to bribe, and any transfer of money to anybody can be monitored and traced. That is why they are very angry and agitative.”
Lamido said that cashless policy in the Nigeria’s economy is not a new thing.
“If you will remember, I started the cashless policy as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2012.”
According to him, the policy was test run in Lagos in 2012 when he was CBN Governor, stressing that it is long overdue, particularly as the country heads to general elections that will usher in new set of leaders, from President downward.
“We started with Lagos and later spread it to five other states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).”
He said that over ten years after the efforts of the CBN under his leadership, time is fully ripped for the country to fully launch into cashless nation like other fast developing economies.
He said that when he started the policy in 2012, there was no external outlet to dispense cash, but that now that Point Of Service (POS) centres are everywhere in the country, there is no excuse not to go fully into the cashless economy.
He acknowledged that citizens would experience discomforts and pains associated with such policy change but that with time, things will normalise.
