The acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Sarah Alade has said  the cashless policy does not intend to eliminate use of physical cash for payment, explaining that the policy is only meant to reduce cash transaction.

Alade disclosed this in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday at a sensitisation exercise on the cashless policy.

Alade, who was represented by the Principal Manager, Shared Services,  CBN, Mr. Ogunfolami Akinloye, said people in rural areas and other Nigerians with less than N500,000 daily transactions are not really affected by the policy.

She also said  Kwara state would go cashless from July 1, 2014, just like other remaining 30 states of the federation, adding that six states, including Abuja had implemented the policy since 2012.

The acting CBN governor, who called for support of all Nigerians on the initiative, added that the policy would help to reposition the country's financial system as well as in addressing challenges in the payment system.

The CBN boss also said that the sensitisation policy became necessary because people needed to know what to do, adding that, "we are also enlarging the financial contact points to include areas such as post offices, motor parks and corner shops.”

Also speaking, the Controller CBN, Ilorin, Mr. Monday Olotewo, said his office was more interested as to how the programme would be accepted in Kwara state.

"Apart from this sensitisation programme, there is going to be road show to markets, motor parks and all parts of the state. We want to ensure that everybody in the nooks and crannies of the state gets to know how to make use of this policy, how they can stop carrying cash about.

"You see in places like Kenya, it is established that even cattle sellers can transact business without going to the bank through the phone. What you only need is the account number of the person you want to send money to and before you know it, the transaction is almost completed", he said.

He added that  the cashless policy would help reduce robbery, cash related crimes, kidnapping, election rigging, revenue leakages, inefficient treasury management and corruption would be reduced, "because you are not carrying cash anywhere."