Cashless policy will curb terrorism financing – Mr Chris Ife

The MD/CEO  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.”

Mr Chris Ife,  further argued that cashless transactions eliminated fraudulent practices and ensured that money was retained for development purposes.

Speaking at the conference, 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.