Stakeholders seek postponement of CBN’s cashless policy in Kano.

Stakeholders in Kano, have unanimously demanded for the postponement of the implementation of Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy in the state.

They spoke during a sensitisation seminar to flag off the policy in the commercial city of Northern Nigeria. 

Speaking, Alhaji Garba Musa, Permanent Secretary  in the state’s Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, said the emerging development in the financial sector will worsen the already bad situation in running of his ministry.

His words: “We are today confronted with a lot of hiccups in the payment of compensations to farmers whose lands government had acquired for developmental projects across the state.”

While lauding the policy which he said will eliminate corruption in the system, he insisted: “Yet we need time to sensitise our people who are mostly peasants and rural dwellers on the merits of the new policy. Today we have hundreds of farmers whose farmlands were taken over by government for developmental projects, and as a person in charge of all payments of their compensations, I know how difficult it is paying them because of this policy. 

“Though, cashless policy is a very good one, I think we need enough time here to sensitize our people for the policy to succeed.”    

Ahmad Muhammad, a Kano businessman,  in his contribution posited that “Nigerian banks still lack requisite financial structure to support the policy, stressing that introduction and implementation of same in the state will no doubt visit untold hardship on the people. Most ATM machines in the state are not working and there is heightened fear of cyber scams associated with the policy and unless and until the CBN stamped out the lapses, chances are that this new policy would fail here.”