Projects success is significantly influenced by current culture. The rules, regulations, and methods that apply in a developed nation like England might not apply in a Third World nation like Nigeria. This results from the disparate cultures of these two nations. While a developed country has a higher rate of employment, a more diverse industrial mix that includes a sizable services sector, a more developed financial system, a higher level of literacy, a longer life expectancy, and well-developed infrastructure including roads, hospitals, and an educational system, developing countries struggle to ensure food security, roads for the transportation of goods and people, educational facilities, pipe-borne water, and electricity.
So, life is challenging in developing countries, particularly in the cities where there is a housing shortage and heavy traffic. Prior to the invention of money, trade was conducted through barter. This custom involved trading products and services for other goods and services. As a result, if I offer you beans, you must give them to me in the form of yam or rice. The first known form of money, according to economic history, were goldsmith receipts. Since anyone who showed these receipts to the person who issued them was treated as the owner of the gold, the receipts provided to the owners who stored them with goldsmiths were the first to signify money. As a result, the value of the receipt was for the weight of the gold itself.
A cashless policy should not be implemented in a hurry.
The receipt might then be traded in for an item or service that has the same value as the gold. Money enabled fair trade since some items in the pre-money era were difficult to exchange for small amounts of other goods. Goats and horses are two examples. The Lydians were the first Western civilization to produce coinage around 700 B.C. Soon after, other nations and civilizations started to issue their own coins with distinct values. It was simpler to compare values and exchange money for products and services when coins had fixed values.
While Nigerians lament the weight of metal money (coins), the issue with paper money is that it is easily worn out if not handled properly. According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the price of printing new naira notes increased by 75% between 2016 and 2020, going from N33.3 billion to N58.6 billion. New naira note printing cost N49.5 billion in 2017, N64 billion in 2018, and N75.5 billion in 2019. Although a cashless economy is a fine idea, Rome was not constructed in a day, therefore it cannot be implemented overnight. The policy should be implemented by CBN over a lengthy period of time.
Costs of printing new notes have drastically increased.
The public should have been “made aware” of the benefits of the policy as the first stage. The CBN will then implement a strategy that will reduce the cost of paying for goods and services when utilizing plastic (credit and debit cards). Food and transportation are the two essential needs of the average Nigerian. If the CBN had done its homework and understood how the typical Nigerian lived in 2023, the cashless policy—which the CBN initially tried in 2012 but failed at—would have been a success. Yet the CBN was more worried about the tiny percentage of Nigerians, especially kidnappers, who were holding a large and significant quantity of naira in their homes and businesses. No form of control will be effective in a nation where there is no “rule of law.”
An average Nigerian wants to eat by purchasing groceries and meals in small amounts each day and going to his job and market with cash. In order for individuals to travel for days or weeks without using cash, the CBN needed to have set up a system that will make travel cards available in Nigeria initially, especially in the cities. There should have been a rollout of food coupons. Two distinct studies have now provided fresh insight into the United Kingdom’s progress toward a cashless society, one of the most highly debated topics in the global financial sector.
Small business owners are frustrated over the new policy.
About 50% of UK consumers pay with digital wallets, according to the most recent research from software recommendation engine Capterra. Convenience and safety are the key benefits cited, with digital payments enabling people to leave their home without a large wallet. In Nigeria, the cashless policy has already killed out many small enterprises. The truth is that Nigeria requires more than just a cashless system to stop kidnapping, vote-buying, and election horse-trading. We need to put into practice our existing anti-vote-buying law and pass legislation making it illegal for anyone to hold more than N500,000 in their home or place of business.
Related Link
UN: Website
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