February 15, (THEWILL) – A survey conducted by this newspaper between February 10 and 14, 2023 revealed that more residents of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, have embraced alternative payment platforms as the scarcity of Naira notes bite harder.
A visit to various banks across the state showed a large number of customers using the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) terminals while others were updating their banking applications (Apps) or seeking assistance to install new ones.
The findings also showed that many customers throng the banks for fund transfer while others make use of their GSM telephone handsets for payment of goods and services.
At the Zenith Bank branch in Ikeja GRA, near the NITEL office, the security guards attended to many customers who had come for different services and were grouped according to their needs with numbers issued as the customers arrived.
As the crowd escalated, a security guard announced that the bank’s ATMs though were not dispensing cash, could be used for fund transfers.
This led to many of the customers who had come for that purpose to besiege the ATM gallery in the premises for their cashless transactions.
“I didn’t know this. Why have I been wasting my time here since morning waiting in the FT (Fund Transfer) queue with 108 as my number on arrival”, said a middle-aged woman who gave her name as Catherine.
“If you didn’t do that, you could be here till we close and you are not sure of coming early tomorrow,” a security official told excited Catherine who came to announce her experience to the waiting customers.
At the UBA branch on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, near Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, this newspaper observed that the banking hall was scanty – with one or two customers waiting for Customer Care officials, while the others came to do electronic fund transfer.
An official of the bank who preferred anonymity, said many of the cases being attended to by the Customer Care section related to challenges in the digital space such as failed PoS transactions, wrong debits, double or multiple debits, and related cases.
“Many people have embraced the cashless policy; it is better than carrying cash which is very risky,” the official told this newspaper on Tuesday, February 14.
The same scenario was observed at the Acme Road branch of UBA in Ogba – Ikeja where the banking hall was not bubbling with customers besieging the bank for various services.
Most of those interviewed said they came to effect fund transfer or to rectify issues relating to transactions through their PoS or the banking Apps.
THEWILL visited Access Bank branch on Airport Road, Ajao Estate where people queued to use the ATM for fund transfers.
“It is a good alternative,” said Boniface Akalike, a furniture maker, “but the challenge is that you do not have a comprehensive print-out for records or follow-up.” The debit alert message is not elaborate enough, he added.
At the newly opened JustRite supermarket on Egbeda Road,
Akowonjo, very few customers made cash transactions as most of those who came for shopping last Saturday afternoon paid with their debit cards.
The supermarket also has JustRite cards that enable customers to pay for their purchases without cash.
“My wife used a transfer to pay for snails she bought at Igando market in Alimosho Local Government Area recently. The seller came with her phone ready for a cashless transaction,” said Mike Iwerunoh, a Journalist.
This newspaper encountered a commercial motorcycle operator, popularly called Okada, at Mile-2 in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area who said he prefers transfer to cash transactions.
“I make more money these days because my passengers do not have to part with the cash on them; they simply make a transfer to my account and that is settled.
We are urging the ‘Agberos’ (members of the Road Transport Workers Union (RTWU)) to begin to think cashless because it will benefit everybody. This issue of cash, cash, makes many people misbehave.”
Road side fruits and roasted yam/plantain sellers now accept transfer.
“Instead of going to queue in the bank for the money I will not access, I go cashless and that is good for my customers. Many well respected people patronise me daily, and they are happy when I tell them to pay by transfer,” said a woman who identified herself as Mama Kehinde, at the Shasha mammy market in Alimosho LGA.
At the Lagos State University (LASU) gate where mammy market operates, many students were seen transacting their businesses with alternative payment systems.
Outlining immediate and long-term benefits of the Naira redesign, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor said recently that the policy will, among other things, strengthen the cashless policy of the bank.
Emefiele who made these revelations at a round-table with the Diplomatic and Consular missions in Abuja on the recent monetary policy decisions of the CBN, said the Naira re-design was overdue and had to be implemented to reduce money in circulation.
“Effectively implemented currency redesign causes a fall in money supply. This will lead to reduction of value of money in circulation and a deceleration of the velocity of money in the economy leading to less pressures on domestic prices.
“As we mop up cash in circulation, money supply could decline, under certain assumptions. In addition, the speed at which money changes hands could reduce.
“Basic economic tenets under the quantity theory of money suggest that the fall in monetary velocity could retard price growth and taper nominal money supply,” Emefiele said at the event held in the Rotunda Hall, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja on February 14, 2023.
About the Author
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
