Cashless Society: Drive's and Challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how we can achieve a cashless society in Nigeria especially given her infrastructure deficits. This study examines the cashless economic system so as to assess its feasibility in Nigeria with regards to timeless, preparedness and adequacy against the backdrop of our level of development both technologically and educationally. Nigeria has continued to evolve in different realms. The economy is being reformed, the institutions are being reshaped and laws are being reexamined so as to reposition the nation to take its rightful position in the international community. As a way of fast-tracking the Nigerian economy so as to be among the first 20 world economies come 2020, Nigeria proposed 2012 for the adoption of the cashless economy system starting with Lagos State but could not realized its objective. The study used structured questionnaire as a means of data collection and the collected data were analyzed using simple percentage procedure. The results indicate that: majority of Nigerians are already aware of the policy and majority agree that the policy will help fight against corruption/money laundering and reduce the risk of carrying cash and can also foster economic growth. Major problems envisaged that can hinder the implementation of the policy are: cyber fraud, limited point of sales and numeracy illiteracy. Based on the findings some recommendations made are: the government should adopt a different strategy to educate the non-literate Nigerians about the cashless economy; and the Federal Government of Nigerian should establish a Cybercrime law.