As the new payment regime introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) called “Cash-lite Lagos” takes off, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Nigeria’s foremost Bank, First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FirstBank), Mr. Bisi Onasanya has assured its customers of seamless e-transaction in all its branches. Speaking to reporters in his office, Mr. Onasanya said the Bank has in place a world-class IT infrastructure to drive its e-payment services across transaction touch points. These, according to him include: Automated Teller Machine (ATMs); Point of Sales Terminal (POS); FirstOnline, the Bank’s internet banking; FirstBank Visa Card; FirstBank MasterCard; FirstBank Classic Card; FirstBank Naira MasterCard; FirstBank Visa Gold Credit Card; Cash Deposit ATM amongst others.

“It is important to point out that even before the new CBN policy came on stream, we had taken some proactive measures by rolling out various e-transaction services and products. For instance, our online-real time banking services have been in place for almost a decade in addition to massive deployment of alternative delivery channels like POS, ATM, internet banking etc. We were able to recognize on time that in the increasingly dynamic and sophisticated business environment, the future of banking will be e-driven”, he said.

The new policy, announced by the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi-led CBN set a threshold of N150,000 and N1m withdrawals and lodgments for individual and corporate organizations respectively. The overall objective is to reduce to the barest minimum the dominance of cash in daily business transactions and its attendant implication on security, cash management and money laundering. The policy which took off in Lagos on January this year will subsequently extend to Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano and Aba in the first phase, while the Bankers’ Committee, a body comprising all the CEO’s of banks and the CBN Governor as chairman, will determine the date of introduction in the remaining states not covered in the first phase.