he former Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Tunde Lemo, has listed some of the benefits of electronic payment to the country. He also stressed the need to improve on the adoption of cashless payment platforms.
Lemo, who said the adoption of electronic payment would enhance efficiency, however, noted that the cashless Nigeria policy was already gaining momentum in the country. He spoke at a programme organised by SystemSpecs in Lagos where an e-payment platform, Remita, was showcased. The theme of the programme was “Declining revenues – Time for new ideas.”
“Research has confirmed that you can increase your Gross Domestic Product by up to two per cent by being more efficient. And in our match to Vision 20:2020, when we hope that Nigeria will be a major payment hub, I think we all need to embrace the electronic payment,” he added. The former CBN deputy governor also said the challenges facing the economy should make the government to broaden its tax base and enforce compliance. According to Lemo, the fall in the nation’s revenue is an avenue to restructure the economy and reduce the country’s dependence on oil. He said the economy challenges were not peculiar to Nigeria as a major oil exporting country, adding that other oil-exporting countries such as Venezuala and Russia had had their currencies devalued.
Lemo said, “The declining revenue is a wake-up call for Nigeria to restructure the economy. Why is it that each time we devalue Nigerian currency we all cry foul? Each time we devalue the naira, it’s an opportunity for us to say no to the rest of the world.” He said devaluation would make the economy more competitive, adding that the nation’s over-reliance on crude oil would make people to condemn naira devaluation. The Managing Director, SystemSpecs, Mr. Tony Obaro, described Remita, an e-payment application, as an electronic platform for receiving and making payments. According to him, the users of the software are connected to all banks where they operate accounts and they are safe the trouble of logging to different websites of their banks. “That means a customer can have his balance on a single screen and have a total of all his balance across several banks. No need to log in to different banks to monitor what is happening,” Obaro said.