PERCEIVED EFFECT OF THE CASHLESS POLICY OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA ON IMPROVEMENT OF THE PAYMENT SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

This study investigated the effect of the Central Bank Cashless Policy on the Payment System in Nigeria. Cognizance of the fact that an improved exchange mechanism and payment system is central to the survival and growth of Nigerian economy which had suffered severe recession between 2015 and 2019, it applied survey research design to poll 204 bank workers from four banks in Nigeria to ascertain their perception on the extent to which the cashless policy has addressed the problem of exchange and payment system in Nigeria. The independent variable was cashless policy while the dependent variables were cash based transactions; modernization of payment system; and volume of cash outside the formal economy. Using Correlation Coefficient with SPSS 10 the test of hypotheses showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the cashless policy and the development and modernisation of the payment system (i.e. p < 0.05 at 0.05 significance level) while it has significantly trimmed down the volume of cash in the informal sector in Nigeria by nearly 32% among others. It was concluded that the cashless policy has significantly and positively improved exchange and payment system in Nigeria. as well as reduced drastically the volume of cash in the informal sector of the economy including reducing significantly the number of cash based transactions in the economy. It was recommended inter alia, that the monetary authorities should embark on a second phase of the policy to bring more transactions under the cashless policy.