One of the things I find most frustrating about present day Nigeria is that the government is not even pretending to be serious about developing the country. A critical analysis of many of the government’s policies and the implementation realities reveal that either kindergartners are in charge or the people running the government are interested in developing something else other than the country.
Take the financial sector for example. The banking reforms of President Obasanjo ushered in the use of cash teller machines otherwise known as ATMs. The era of CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi took it a step further with the introduction of a cashless policy in 2012. Fast forward to today, the current financial regulators have indirectly outsourced the role of ATMs to individuals running POS cash services. As a result of this the ATMs have dried up or become redundant and most people needing cash today have to patronize POS agents to obtain cash.
By the deliberate, gradual elimination of ATMs, the government is getting rid of a major silent partner in financial regulation and the fight against crime. In civilized climes, ATMs have become invaluable and do more than just dispense cash. They’re like the unseen hand of the law and not only do a great job of keeping transaction logs but equipped with very sharp cameras, they act as the surveillance central of their locations.
Modern ATMs in advanced economies, besides allowing users to withdraw and deposit cash, also allow card replacements, foreign currency dispensing, biometric authentication, CARDless transactions (using your phone), adverts marketing etc. However, to also deepen cash availability to the public, many stores allow “cash backs”. This is a concept where a customer while paying with a debit card for goods or services can request for cash which amount will be added to his/ her overall purchase price.
With POS agents, user privacy during cash withdrawal is gone and the risk of your pin being compromised is very high. The pros of ATMs over POS agents are just too much to ignore and it baffles me why the financial regulators in Nigeria would sanction a retrogressive policy that prefers POS agents with all the attendant risk associated with cash handling to take over the role of ATMs unless. as I posited earlier, they’re either kindergarteners or interested in developing something else other than Nigeria.
Gabriel Ndubuisi
Brookfield, WI
U.S.A
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