Technology- The CBN’s cashless policy!

A forum to discuss possible ways of successfully implementing the CBN’s cashless policy, organised by the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria, EPPAN in Abuja  recently uncovered why several  e-government initiatives keep failing, saying that until those loopholes are plugged, cost of governance would remain high.

Chief among the problems, the forum discovered, was inability of government to invest in technologies that could easily drive governance and administration of its various processes and systems.

Besides, the forum also frowned at the inability of government to always deliver on its promises and responsibilities to the people, saying that this has created apathy and caused every initiative of government to suffer lack of confidence and trust from people.

The two-day event tagged E-payment for Government Forum, was held as part of a knowledge building and skills development initiative in government circles in preparation for cashless Nigeria.

Apathy on e-govt

Delivering a paper titled Getting Government closer to the people, at the event, Director  Payment Solutions and VAS, Interswitch, Mr Charles Ifedi said that the current attempt by CBN to entrench a cashless transaction structure in the country was a laudable initiative that can easily place Nigeria among the 20 world economies on or before the year 2020.

He however regretted that the initiative may also suffer setback if past mistakes of government are not addressed and adequately corrected. For him, “several failed attempts at entrenching e-government initiatives like the National ID card project has created some form of apathy and mistrust on any project from government.”

Different card schemes, no real values

He also lamented that there were “several closed systems with different cards for different purposes like the Voters Card, National ID card, State ID cards, Health Card among others, which are not adding any tangible value to the citizens” adding that until these schemes were harmonised or done away with, government might not be taken seriously on any e-government issue.

Other factors he identified as against the e- government progress in Nigeria, included that of inadequate IT infrastructure to drive e-payment in Nigeria, inadequate support from government which leave most of the initiatives largely pioneered by the private sector and lack of the needed know-how in utilizing various e-payment services and associated infrastructure by majority of the citizenry.

Way forward

After several deliberations by major stakeholders at the event, it was agreed that for government to leapfrog from its past experiences, it must adopt a multi-channel revenue collections system where revenue collections  can be carried out at bank branches and other channels  as well as encouraging online revenue collection.

Stakeholders also advocated for a citizens health management solution that can deliver healthcare services to citizens through partnerships with HMOs; personnel management solutions that can ensure efficient employee management and thereby eliminate leakages, particularly those caused by ghost workers.

Government was also advised to automate the disbursement of social benefits to deserving citizens so that people get exactly what they are deserving of.