The Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) has insisted that the financial institutions do not have any reason to hoard the currency in light of the extreme hardships Nigerians are experiencing. This comes as public anger toward deposit money banks (DMBs) increases in response to photos showing hidden new banknotes in banking halls.
The group further noted that as part of their continued commitment to constructing seamless client experiences and real-time digital financial transactions, banks had spent over N100 billion in recent years setting up and maintaining cutting-edge electronic channels.
“From internet banking to mobile applications, automated teller machines (ATMs), point of sales (PoS) merchants, mobile wallets, unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) codes to agents and digital franchises, not less than 80 per cent of Nigerians now enjoy one form of digital or cashless transaction or another, powered by investments by Nigerian Banks,” said a statement signed by its President, Rasheed Bolarinwa.
The declaration was made at a time when non-traditional and digital-first banks were becoming more and more popular. According to The Guardian, Nigerians from a variety of industries are shifting in large numbers to financial technology platforms and wallets that offer banking services since the transactions there are easier.
However, ACAMB downplayed the difficulties as unplanned and transient, stressing that the banking system would soon return to normal. The ongoing distribution of the redesigned naira notes and improved cashless policy has caused unforeseen challenges for the Nigerian populace, which ACAMB sympathized with.
In addition to the national objective to promote cashless transactions, it was highlighted that unforeseen restrictions on the withdrawal of old naira notes and the circulation of new naira notes have had unanticipated repercussions on the banking public.
“These commitments by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have seen Nigeria rising steadily and recognised as having arguably Africa’s most advanced digital financial services industry and one of the world’s top 10 real-time payment markets. It is a national pride and proof of Nigerian Banks’ commitment to customer service that Nigeria is regarded as having Africa’s most digitized banking industry.
“Nigerian banks remain committed to continuing investments in seamless and secured digital banking that excite customers to voluntarily use and rely on the various digital and alternate payment systems available,” the body said.
Announcing that the whole banking industry is collaborating with the regulator to urgently resolve underlying obstacles, ACAMB has put its support behind the increased cashless policy promoted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the strength of the investment in digital technology.
It also added: “In the past few hours, banks have taken additional measures to quicken the flow of naira notes. These measures, among others, include the deployment of extra technical supports for online payments, additional security at ATMs to ensure all-clock usage, technological back-up to reduce online downtime to the barest minimum, additional staff deployment to counters to attend to cash transactions and timely interbank and inter-branch networking to bridge any gap.”
“We are confident that these measures, in addition to efforts by the CBN will result in greater ease of access and cash liquidity. The Federal Government and the CBN have reiterated similar readiness to address any constraint in the cyclical flow, including making adjustments, where necessary.”
