Appraising cashless policy in Kano

Kano is a state that is famous as a centre of commerce, with a unique identity as a market centre, which conducts most of its buying and selling in an open market arena.After all, the city is aconglomeration of a trilogy of markets, consisting ofKantinKwari Textile Market, Singer Wholesale Market andSabonGari Central Market. Thus for […]

Kano is a state that is famous as a centre of commerce, with a unique identity as a market centre, which conducts most of its buying and selling in an open market arena.After all, the city is aconglomeration of a trilogy of markets, consisting ofKantinKwari Textile Market, Singer Wholesale Market andSabonGari Central Market. Thus for an initiative that is supposed to have an impact on the local population, by controlling and limiting the flow of raw cash between sellers and buyers, and determine themode of business conduct within the environment, the interviewers used every trick in their journalistic books to find a usage, connection or even a mere link for the Point of Sale Machines with the city’s trio of open markets.
   Unfortunately for the inquisitiveprofessionals, the apex bank’s officials calmly stood their ground, that this facility is basically limited to a modern confined super store structure, despite the fact that over 80 percent of the monetary transactions and activities generated within the city originates from the three markets within the city, and that no policy initiative wouldsucceed in monitoringgeneral cash flow amongst the citizenry unless this class of traders is encapsulated into thearrangement. Of course, a great number of Nigerians have embraced the supermarket culture; after all, the urbane, the young and the evolving middle class are among a group of persons who conduct most of their buying of essential commodities in these business centres. But they are merely a smallfraction of customer network within the environment, and as such the claim about a middle class purchasing base is just an unproven question.
   Taking into cognizance the amount of goods exchanged in the three major markets as points of sales, any arrangement that seeks to limit the open usage of raw cash but relies only on supermarkets cannot lead to a cashless society, as the paper money would still be used in open arena of business enterprise and it is they who control more than 80 percent of buying and selling activity within the city. Indeed it is more of a novelty, the current cashless policy and especially one of its accompanying implementation tool of a Point of Sale Machine, because its impact is more in an economy that has embraced the supermarket culture, where those points of purchases are not for a small segment of the society but a necessity to the whole community. In those countries, it is not an optional choice making purchases in a confined provisions store structure; in fact, it is the only means of getting access to any wanted goods and commodities.
   In places like the United States of America, the monetary policy agency responsible for monitoringcash flow,which is the Federal Reserve, taps into the volume of sales in these consumer chains to determine whether the general economy is slowing down or spiralling out of control. A month of weak purchases portends a grave danger to the manufacturing industries and easily explains the growth of inventories in warehouses, while a great purchasing season as during the time of festivities stimulates industries to produce more goods for consumption. All this is easily achieved on a simple monitoring of the points of sales in the supermarket chains.
 Generally, most Nigerians make small purchases at open consumer sales points, thus the usage of cash is still a preferred option. Also, most of those selling ventureshave Automated Teller Machines for easy dispensing of cash to prevent the handling and transportation of large sums of money. Most importantly, the Point of Sale Machines have to use the ever unreliable and slow Nigerian telephony connectivity system to gain access to the internet, on which a link is established between the two corresponding bank accounts and upon conclusion of the transaction, a transfer is effected with the generation of an alert to both parties, signifying what is withdrawn and from whom it is taken. Thus, any little breach to this system, a financial misappropriation is easily generated.

Suwaid could be reached via [email protected]