Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed that while there are no plans to reverse the recently introduced cash withdrawal policy, necessary assessments of the policy’s specifics will be carried out after performance was assessed.
This is just as he said the policy was not intended to make life difficult for Nigerians but to strengthen the country’s economy.
Emefiele stated this in an interview with journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, to brief him about happenings in the CBN and the economy.
He pointed out that many nations were adopting digitisation and going cashless.
According to him, the president “was very happy and said we should carry on our work, no need to fear, no need to bother about anybody.”
“We will be reviewing from time to time how this is working because I cannot say that we are going to be rigid. But it is not to say that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tricking (sic) some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.
“We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are making life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them,” Emefiele said.
The CBN governor further assured that there is no need for anybody to worry as the bank is monitoring what is happening, up and alive to its responsibilities and will do what is right for Nigeria and Nigerians.
“We think, Nigeria as a big country, the biggest economy in Africa that we need to leapfrog into the cashless economy. We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 percent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitisation have gone cashless,” he added.
Emefiele further said the policy was not targeted at specific persons or groups but for the good and development of the Nigerian economy and therefore appealed to Nigerians to see this policy the way it has been presented.
