GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, has said that the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, will help to check the increasing menace of terrorism in Nigeria.
According to Fashola, through cashless transactions, it would be easy to account for all transactions and eliminate the possibility of terrorism financing.
The governor who spoke at a conference to chart the way forward for the cashless transition, said, “there is nothing that attracts crime more than cash and this transition to cashless transactions would help to address these crimes especially the increasing wave of terrorism.
“The transition involves everyone having a part to play as it will ensure safety and also reduce the cost of cash management.
“About 65 per cent of circulating cash in Nigeria are not in the banking system, this results to about N900billion that remains unaccounted for and nobody knows whether this money is being used to fund terrorism, drug peddling and other vices, which are huge risks to all of us.”
Fashola who was represented by the Accountant General of the state, Mr. David Sunmoni, argued that cashless transactions eliminated fraudulent practices and ensured that money was retained for development purposes.
Speaking , CBN’s Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr. Tunde Lemo, said the cashless policy was an initiative aimed at reforming the banking payment system in Nigeria, noting that “the cash-less economy policy is designed to promote financial intermediation, financial inclusion, minimise revenue leakages and thus increase Internally Generated Revenue, reduce incidences of robbery and also reduce the amount of cash payment while encouraging electronic payments.