CBN reviews cashless policy, raises withdrawals/lodgments limits, extend pilot programme in Lagos to December, national roll-out defers to January 2013

By Ebenezer Ademola

March 19, 2012 16:09:21pm GMT

CBN building

WorldStage Newsonline-- The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday reviewed the ongoing Cash-less Policy in Lagos State by raising the daily cumulative withdrawals/lodgments limits of N150,000 and N1 million to N500,000 and N3 million on free withdrawals and lodgments by individual and corporate customers respectively

According to a statement by Mohammed Abdullahi, Head, Corporate Communications, CBN, having monitored the partial implementation of the Cash-less Policy in Lagos State and following discussions with various stakeholders on the effective implementation of the project, the apex bank had decided to reassess the policy to allow for smooth transition and adoption in Lagos State in the first instance, and the entire country at a later date.

Consequently, the CBN as a responsive institution has reviewed the policy as follows: Daily Cumulative Cash Withdrawals/Lodgments Limits: The daily cumulative limits of N150,000 and N1 million have been reviewed upwards to N500,000 and N3 million on free withdrawals and lodgments by individual and corporate customers respectively.

Cash-lite Lagos: Banks court churches with e-payment options

LAGOS – Banks in the country have commenced an aggressive marketing of their electronic payment services to religious houses, particularly churches, ahead of the March 31 deadline for the take-off of the cash-lite policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in Lagos.

Vanguard gathered that some of the banks have started making presentations to management and leaders of some churches on the use of non-cash instruments by their members to make payment for tithes and offerings.

The banks said the marketing campaign became necessary due to the fact that the policy allows no preferences for religious organisation, adding that any church or religious organisation that fails to adhere to the rules will be sanctioned accordingly.

Aero Introduces A New Payment Option For Customers

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

As part of her continuous improvement on customer-focused services, Aero, West Africa’s oldest aviation company has introduced an entirely new, fast and convenient mobile money payment on the platform of U-MO.
This is the first of its kind in the Nigerian aviation industry as Aero ticket can now be paid for from an electronic wallet on the mobile phone. This is a product that enables customers to pay for their flight tickets using their mobile phones. The introduction of the mobile money platform is in addition to other booking and payment options provided by Aero for the customers’ convenience.
Mobile money is a virtual account that can be accessed through the mobile phone to make payments and transfers.
No doubt, the airline has defined air travel in a way that was originally thought to be unachievable.
The new service is the first of its kind in the industry in the West African region.  It is further proof of Aero’s desire to empower more people to fly more often by offering great value fares. The airline believes air travel should be affordable and accessible to all and they are doing just that by introducing this payment platform.

Convergence and the future of banking

By Segun Oruame 08/03/2012 00:00:00

MTN and Western Union not too long ago, formed an alliance bound to, and perhaps, ignite the biggest international mobile remittance services or mobile money transfer on the continent. The alliance is as significant for the financial/banking industry as it is for the telecoms sector in what would strengthen the argument for convergence and the erasing of traditional technology with regulatory boundaries.
The alliance also widens the vista for knowledge on the implication of the rise and rise of mega-Telcos. MTN with its home office or headquarters in South Africa is a Middle East and African operator making it a mega Telco with subscribers in about 21 countries. This is significant if you begin to see subscribers of mega-Telcos as citizens of the new universal or globalised countries.  Virtually all the networks in the big league of Nigeria’s mobile phone market including Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN have a combined subscribers’ base in excess of 90 million. Apart from Globacom which presence is still chiefly African; all the other three have operations within and outside the continent.

NIGERIA WILL BE BETTER OFF WITH CASHLESS POLICY- ELEGBE

Business/Finance | 5 March 2012By NBF News

Elegbe
 
Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came up with the idea of cashless economy, saying that high dependence on cash for settlements has resulted in the inefficient allocation of resources and a low depth of financial intermediation. The CBN also frowned at the high usage of cash for settlements, which it said results in high costs for banks and other stakeholders. 

The policy is to begin as from June 2012, however, a pilot implementation was slated for Lagos, code-named 'Cash-less Lagos', which eventually took off last month.

The highpoints of the cashless banking policy is the pegging of daily withdrawals or deposits to a maximum of N150,000 per individual customer and N1 million for a corporate client. 

Lagos goes Cashless, are you ready?

As we prepare to go cashless in Lagos, please find a list of points you need to take note of;

• In line with the policy, Maersk Nigeria Limited will not accept cash payment from the 15th February, 2012. 
• Payment will be made through bank electronic transfer or Bank draft.
• With NIBBS and RTGS transfer, payment will be instant. 
• Only bank drafts from Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, GT Bank and Citibank will be acceptable.
• We will continue to honour cheques from cheque paying customers. 
• Please include the following details when you are making a payment online;

Manufacturers Task Banks over Cashless Nigeria

Lagos, Nigeria: The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the umbrella body of manufacturers in the country has expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness by United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc in support of the new cash-lite policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), urging that more efforts be put in place to ensure that seeming challenges from e-platforms are mitigated.

This was disclosed in Lagos during a presentation by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc to the manufacturers on the Cash-lite initiative at the Quarterly Annual Conference of the Association at the MAN House, Ikeja Lagos.