COVID-19: It’s time to go fully cashless

The recent announcement by President Muhammadu Buhari of a gradual end to the nationwide lockdown as from May 4th, 2020 may have come as a relief to most Nigerians. But those who know the country fear for the worst. COVID-19 may end up spreading faster than projected.

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Unlike some advanced economies in America, Asia and Europe, Nigeria, like most African countries, carry out almost all transactions in cash. Petty traders ‎and artisans in Nigeria believe only in cash payments. Cash contributions are made to the local banker who goes from workshop to workshop, and stall to stall for daily and weekly collections. Cash payments are made to cyclist transporters, the porter in the market, and taxi and bus conductors. Nigerians pay cash to buy sachet water, pay cash to decorators and pay cash to the fruits and vegetables vendor. Cash is at the centre of more than ninety percent of financial transactions in Nigeria. E-payments look esoteric to many micro and small scale businesses owners who store cash in wallets, purses, traders underskirt, under mattresses and in their bossoms.

Currency notes are great travellers. They travel farther and wider, at home and abroad, than their current holder may fathom. On their journey they carry all sorts of bacteria, vira and amoebae. As big vectors of disease, they should therefore be a source of worry because a COVID-19 carrier travelling from Lagos‎ to Maiduguri by road, for example, will likely spend money at stops along the way, and spread the disease in the process. To prevent this sort of spread, the Federal Government must act quickly.

President Muhammadu Buhari should, as a matter of urgency direct the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to finance the purchase of Point of Sale (POS) payment devices, free of charge, as on-the-spot free account opening ‎for traders and all the unbanked population is taking place. Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards should also be provided free to all the unbanked in the nation in the interest of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The cost of ATM cards should be borne by the CBN while the banks should bear the cost of biometric registration and data collection.

By two weeks after the end of the lockdown, at least eighty percent of the unbanked should have an ATM card while at least fifty percent of traders and small business owners should have POS terminals.

It is important that the Federal Government takes these steps immediately, and support them with a gradual but fast mopping up of cash from the system.  Majority of Nigerians are illiterate and may not be able to understand how cash hands down diseases to them. It is the government’s duty to save this class of people and every Nigerian. This is one way to do so.