Review of Cashless Economy in Nigeria and the Challenges of Network Infrastructures

Abstract

The central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conceptualized the idea of Cashless Economy in 2011 as part of its blueprint to drive economic development and modernise our payment system in line with the Nation’s Vision 2020 goal of being amongst the twenty most developed economies by the year 2020. The Apex bank of Nigeria then came up with a cashless policy with the view of pegging the amount of physical cash to be withdrawn or deposited at a time in commercial banks. The pilot scheme kick started in Lagos, Kano, Anambra and some other states of Nigeria’s major commercial cities with intention of spreading across all the states of federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It was designed to reduce but not eliminate the amount of physical cash in circulation and encourage more electronic driven transaction channels. A number of researchers agree that this initiative by the CBN is anchored on the fact that an efficient and digitized payment system positively correlates with economic development, which is believed to be a key indicator for economic growth provided that all other factors are constant. This policy involves deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gadgets through Computer Network Infrastructures. The Policy aims at reducing cost of banking services, improving the effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation as well as driving economic growth and development. However, since its inception, the policy has witnessed a number of challenges such as transaction failures resulting from poor network availability, hidden bank charges by commercial banks and cyber crime attacks. This research, therefore, is an opinion paper in which the researcher presents the challenges facing cashless policy in Nigeria and as well as proffer solutions to the identified challenges. A good number of cashless transaction channels were equally discussed and these include Electronic Cards, Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Mobile Banking, Online banking, Point of Sales (POS), and Near Field Communication (NFC). However, they all seem to have a common challenge (Network failures). The study recommends Five Nines availability (Network uptime of 99.999 percent) and Mesh Network design topology amongst others as recommendations.