Following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new withdrawal policy, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has faulted the step taken by the apex bank.
The CBN announced a policy of restricting individual cash withdrawals from commercial banks to N20,000 per day and N100,000 for a week or N500,000 in the case of corporate bodies.
Reacting to the development, Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Murtala Aliyu, warned that the insistence of the CBN on implementing the wholly unrealistic policy will lead to a catastrophic collapse of the informal sector of the economy.
The warning was contained in a statement on Friday by the group.
Arewa said that transactions in commodity markets particularly in the rural areas are entirely cash-based
The group also noted that Nigeria has the lowest financial penetration in Africa whereby over 38 million adults do not have access to banking services with women, rural dwellers, Micro-Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Northern Nigeria being among the most disproportionately excluded.
It, however, asked the CBN to allow a level playing field for a wide range of financial providers and encourage partnerships between them. The ACF further asked the CBN to enforce strict regulations that protect people’s money, and inform, encourage and prepare the public adequately for the transition.
The group insisted that until the CBN addresses the challenges substantially, a preemptive move or a ”frog-jump” into a cashless payments system, however well-intentioned, will only land the country into a bottomless pit.
