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Reliable and
efficient payment systems have been identified as aiding regional
integration, especially with regard to establishing a common platform
for regional trade. Mansur Muhtar, the Minister of Finance, speaking at
the regional policy workshop on Payment Systems and Cash Couriers in
West Africa, in Abuja on Wednesday, said non-cash payment systems can
transform a financial landscape.

Intra-regional trade

Specifically, the
minister said that it is pertinent for West African countries to create
a conducive environment for the promotion of intra-regional trade, to
accelerate the journey towards regional integration.

“Indeed, the
efforts towards regional integration, especially with regard to
establishing a common platform for regional trade, can only yield the
desired results if there are reliable and efficient payment systems in
place”.

He argued that
recent developments in Nigeria provide good examples of how non-cash
payment systems can transform a financial landscape. “The phenomenal
growth experienced by financial institutions in the acquisition and use
of cards and card payments by their customers, is a testimony of
availability, reliability and acceptability of modern systems and
processes, not only in the financial sector, but also as experienced in
the telecom sector.”

Furthermore, he
said that the new tax systems introduced by Nigeria’s Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS), is also a model for efficient tax collection
through modern electronic payment systems.

Financial reforms

Mr. Muhtar,
however, expressed regrets that while individual countries in the
region are making progress in reforming their financial systems, this
is not the case at the intra-regional level.

He noted that
despite the fact that indigenous banks are spearheading financial
system reforms, we are yet to make a significant breakthrough in the
acceptability, efficiency and reliability of non-cash payment systems
in the region.

“The ubiquitous
impact cash-trust people have in cash transactions has become the norm
rather than the exception in modern day commerce. This situation should
not be allowed to continue after over 30 years of ECOWAS existence,” he
said.

The minister added,
“The recent financial and economic crisis has many lessons not only for
us in this region, but the world over. One of the lessons is that the
global economy is far more integrated than we have ever imagined. What
happens in the United States has the capacity to affect our region
through a spiral effect of liquidity freeze.”

He called on
financial institutions operating in the region to demonstrate total
commitment to its development by creating efficient, reliable,
dependable payment systems, saying that money laundering, which is an
international crime, has become more compounded by globalisation and
greed and further fuelled by desperation and marginalisation of the
poor in the country.

Nigeria, he said,
is fully committed to addressing the problem of money laundering and
terrorist financing by cash dominated economies, by deepening the
reforms in the financial sector and the enforcement of relevant laws to
limit cash transactions.

Mr. Muktar said the
bill seeking the amendment of the Money Laundering Prohibition Bill
presented to the National Assembly by Acting President, Goodluck
Jonathan, will bring the country’s anti-money laundering legislation to
full conformity with international standards.

Global economies

Also speaking,
Abdullahi Shehu, the Director-General of the Action Group against Money
Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), pointed out that economies of many
countries of the world have moved away from the dominance of cash as a
medium of exchange to non-cash payment systems.

He said cash
transactions present a unique challenge in the identification, tracing
and recovery of laundered proceeds of crime, particularly in the
absence of legal frameworks limiting cash transactions, or lack of
faithful enforcement of available laws.

The workshop, he
noted, will among other things, provide a forum for concerned parties
to deliberate on the implications of cash transactions and cash
couriering in West Africa and to also consider ways of addressing the
problems, especially of how existing and emerging new payment systems
can be tailored to meet the needs of the region.

The workshop was organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group
against money laundering in West Africa (GIABA), in collaboration with
the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS).