It has been discovered that “policy” is one of the major things that citizens, especially the less privileged use to assess their elected political leaders, because through it citizens can enjoy the dividends of democracy or otherwise.
It seems like a tradition here in Nigeria, that whenever governments or organisations introduce a policy the people experience some hitches at the beginning, but later become used to it.
It happened to me as an undergraduate at Abdu Gusau Polytechnic Talata Mafara, when the then Rector Prof Tukur Adamu introduced E-Registration, E-results, and E-Exams cards. It was a bit weird but later we became used to it.
Permit me to express my opinion on the trending issue, which is the “cashless policy” of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, even though I am neither a financial analyst nor an economist.
Cashless policy simply means restricting of the movement of money in a large or massive quantity, it doesn’t mean a total stoppage or banning of money circulation. The aim of the policy is to make people to become digitalised.
There is nothing wrong with the cashless policy generally because at the end of every transaction sellers would deposit their cash in the bank or Point of Service, PoS for safety; the buyers use debit or credit cards. But what makes the policy good or bad is the availability or standardisation of the network in a particular area or a country as a whole.
Nigeria has a long way to go with cashless policy, because our communication networks are bad while our power sector is epileptic. One can spend up to five minutes waiting for a single online transaction to deliver to the receiver. In country experiencing such difficulties, how can the people cope with the cashless policy?
Last week, I went to the market to buy clothes for N4,500. I transferred N5000 with the intention of collecting N500 balance. Guess what! I spent more than 5 minutes waiting for the transaction to deliver. The seller’s account was not credited even though my bank had debited me. I had to show the seller the teller, which settled the matter
These days, only God knows how much money our business men have lost, and only God knows how many poor people have suffered in the name of this cashless policy, a policy that will not add any value to us now.
It appears the government did not prepare for this otherwise it would have given the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy an ultimatum to improve our network; one can only debit N20,000 per day via ATM while in PoS is N5000, what kind of policy is this?
Cashless has been in use in other countries for a long without the hitches and hardship being experienced in Nigeria. If I were Mr President I would have copied from my counterparts elsewhere.
I, therefore, appeal to the Buhari government to review this policy for the good of the people and for the sake of leaving a good legacy.
Abubakar Muhammad Sani
Writes From Kaduna
