COMMUNITY CONNECT - Why Go Cashless?
FIRST EDITION OF COMMUNITY CONNECT IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY
As a culture, everyone present at the event introduced themselves and what they do for a living, it also cut across people of diverse fields but more Tech persons. TG encouraged every developer present to join the Meta Facebook community to help build their networks, he also chipped in that he would love to host a Hackathon by December so that developers in Umuahia would come together and build something spectacular and that is in other to encourage young and upcoming Developers.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RECENT CASHLESS POLICY
For Belema, he applauded the federal government and CBN for the recent currency change development, as it is a means of tackling the stolen cash problem in Nigeria, however, he feels that the policy and the way they are going about it is not wise.
Daniel also stated that he is also happy with the federal government for the development, but frowned at the lack of naira dispensation in banks and ATMs, he also complained about how he stood in the queue for hours and ended up not getting money.
However one of the attendees had a different view, stating that the policy would help more people get accounts with the bank but that the bank and federal government would go into deficit because the CBN is not meeting up with printing the amount of money needed to circulate round. He also complained about the short notice which is the major problem Nigeria is facing.
TG asked who we are to blame as regards the issues surrounding the cashless policy, Grant suggested the government is to be blamed because they aren't looking into what the banks are doing as regards hoarding money for the highest bidder. We welcomed Mr. Kay who talked about the Legal tender which is CBN’s responsibility. He said the new note is more political than economical. . Now begs the question again; who is to blame, CBN or the Bank? He went further to say that CBN ordered the banks to pay through ATM an amount of 20k daily, 100k weekly, and 400k monthly and not to pay through the counter. 500 billion has been going on in circulation for the past 3 years. This is a sign that there is an uneven distribution in the country because the population is more than the amount received.
Preacher (Jonathan) said the E-Naira app works without data. He suggested that people start accepting the transfer format. He stated that what makes the currency valuable is its scarcity. He went further to state that if the currency is excessively pumped into circulation, Nigeria will be poor in the next 5 years.
WHO IS TO BLAME?
Kaykay the guest speaker answered this question by saying both the Government, CBN, and the masses are to blame for this cash scarcity.
WAYS TO TRANSFER MONEY WITHOUT CASH
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USSD
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Mobile Transfers
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eNaira
THINGS TO NOTE
CBN has been practicing the cashless policy for about 12 years now, and this was what birthed payment platforms like flutter wave, and other fintech companies.
HOW TO FIX THE CANKERWORM (Solution)
TG stated that the banks should start by investing in their technological aspect like paying their IT guys well enough and building better infrastructure.
He also added that people should learn to always transition from the traditional way of banking to an online mode of banking like MOMO and the rest.
Preacher added that for him, the solutions include:
Having a working USSD that can work very well on Nokia touch phones
Make eNaira easier to use without data
