Next phase of cashless policy slated for July
The next phase of the cashless policy will start in July, with the Federal Capital Territory, Abia, Rivers, Anambra, Kano and Ogun states coming on board.
The Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria, Mrs. Onajite Regha, said this in Lagos during an interactive session with journalists at the unveiling of E-Payment Review Magazine, a quarterly publication by E-PPAN.
The association also called for an industry collaboration that will ensure improved connectivity to Point of Sales terminals deployed to drive the nascent cashless economy in Nigeria.
She said at the last count, the number of PoS terminals so far deployed in the cashless economy has hit 150, 000.
The E-PPAN CEO, who noted that the cashless initiative was recording success and had continued to impact positively on the Nigerians, however, lamented that the issue of connectivity to the PoS deployed remained a major challenge.
She said, 'By the time we started the Cashless Lagos scheme, the projection of the regulator was that by December, 2012, we would have recorded 40, 000 PoS terminal deployment. But available data showed that we now have about 150, 000 PoS machines in Lagos.
'However, the question is: how many of the PoS are working? So, that is where I believe we need to work on. We need to increase better connectivity to these terminals to encourage the merchants and the consumers to use the devices for seamless payment transactions,' she said.
Regha urged all the players in the payment industry to collaborate in ensuring that the connectivity challenges were addressed to bring redundant PoS terminals into functional state.
Speaking on the maiden edition of the E-Payment Review Magazine, Regha said before now, the magazine was published quarterly as an insert in one of the national dailies.
She said, 'From inception, the magazine is designed to be the voice of the e-payment industry and also a platform to showcase the innovativeness of our members, celebrate their achievements while setting the agenda for a geometric leap and development in the industry.
'As the e-payment frontier continues to widen and demand more roles, we deemed it fit to expand the size and scope of the publication to capture fully and represent the growth in the industry.'
The stand-alone publication provides readers with informative, educative and exciting news and features, profiling all developments in the industry backed up with research statistics and empirical analysis.
Meanwhile, Regha has riestated E-PPAN's efforts to create a favourable payment landscape in Nigeria, as it strives to meet its overraching goal of enhancing institutional frameworks and processes for a robust and effective e-payment in the country