CBN Urges Abia To Leverage On Cashless Policy – Globasure News Updates

The Abia State government has been charged to take advantage of the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to grow its internally generated revenue (IGR).

At an interactive session on the initiative at Government House, Umuahia, CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was represented by the apex bank’s deputy governor, Operations, Tunde Lemo, appealed to Abia  to follow the examples of Lagos and Ogun states to improve on its IGR base.

Sanusi stated that the policy was designed to enable Nigeria move rapidly to achieving the goal of becoming one of the largest economies in the world by 2020.

He hinted that a study conducted by the CBN during the last banking sector crisis showed that many got into trouble because of their high cost profile, adding that cash management was identified as one of the major areas that led to high cost of doing business in banks.

The CBN helmsman further disclosed that countries with lower cash-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio achieved higher growth rate, citing that while Indonesia had 4.5 per cent cash-in -circulation to the GDP, and South Africa had two per cent cash-in-circulation to the GDP, Nigeria had 41 per cent cash-in-circulation to the GDP, which he described as “very high.”