There is an indication that the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to engage Agency Banking Networks in the currency redesign exercise will achieve the two-prong benefit of fast-tracking financial inclusion among the country-side dwellers. Many Nigerians had expressed fears that the currency redesign initiative announced on October 26, 2022 would put the rural dwellers in a difficulty given the absence of bank branches to deposit their old currencies in their locations.
However, the disclosure by the apex bank to use alternative service channels for the currency redesign would address the concern about the countryside dwellers as well as providing a far-reaching avenue for the financial inclusion strategy – a pet project of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Addressing journalists at the end of the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday, November 22, Emefiele said the financial regulator and other commercial banks have deployed agency banking across the country and extended workdays to ensure people have places to deposit their money and withdraw the redesigned Naira.
Reacting to speculations that the January 31, 2023 deadline might be extended to accommodate the needs of rural areas, the CBN governor said there are 1.4 million agency banking networks that will attend to both urban and rural areas. He added that the rapid increase in the number of the alternative payment service channel in three years was a remarkable milestone.