Osinbajo Seeks Humane Ways To Implement Currency Change

Worried by the difficulty experienced by Nigerians in getting the new naira notes, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday met with some players in the FinTech space, exploring possible ways of mitigating the hardship.

He urged regulators and the banks to deploy more FinTechs and money agents to the hinterlands to address the worrying situation.

According to a statement by his media aide , Laolu Akande Osinbajo said; “You need cash to pay for transport. For instance, in Abuja how do you take ‘drop or along’ or use a Keke NAPEP without cash, or buy foodstuff on the road or in canteens, or even buying recharge cards?

“Parents with kids in public schools give money daily to their children for lunch, most commerce is informal, so you need cash for most things.”

During the interactive session with a number of FinTech investors and ecosystem players, the Vice President said that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the commercial banks should work with all FinTechs that have mobile money agents, not just some of them, in order to reach the farthest places in the country.

According to him, “it seems to me that banks must engage their mobile money operators – FinTechs with mobile money licenses and many of them have micro-finance bank licenses now and already have a network of mobile money agents or human banks or human ATMs (as they are sometimes called) who are responsible to them and they can supervise by themselves. They can do currency swaps and open bank accounts.”