Cashless campaign: Advertisers tasked on relevant messages

Nigeria’s dream of achieving a cashless economy may continue to roll without gathering moss if there is no proper understanding of the concept by majority of the people due to absence of relevant communication. 

 

So far, communication on the cashless economy has not been deep down, according to Pat Utomi, co-founder of Lagos Business School, who regretted that those who have tried to explain the idea have not done so logically. As a result, he said, “there is a confusion of other stereotypes and barriers that have made this process a challenging one for understanding by most of the citizens.”

It is Utomi’s belief that the few people who are making the new order difficult would continue to have their way if the majority who will benefit from the concept are in the dark over benefits of the cashless transaction. Those unwittingly resisting the new order, according to him, include those benefiting from the cash economy, those who fear technology, and people who don’t want a trail of their transactions.

The economist, who delivered a lecture on ‘Managing Challenges of Communication of the Cashless Economy’ at a forum organised recently by Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), therefore challenged advertisers to key into the CBN’s cashless campaign.

The role of advertisers in changing behaviour in this kind of scenario, Utomi said, is to identify the majority who will profit from the new order and facilitate their understanding of the benefits to them. He advised that part of the campaign on technology should be to make it more people-friendly and to make people more relaxed with it.

He also said one way to sell the programme was to challenge people with the problem of becoming laggards. “In Nairobi, you can pay taxi fare with your cell phone. If Nigeria is faced with the embarrassment that in Nairobi people are transacting like that and we are the way we are, I suspect it will be a good wakeup call.”

Utomi also advised the CBN to focus its campaign on government functionaries most of whom are involved in cash transactions for obvious reasons.

The economist further said if Nigeria was to lead other African countries in the economic trajectory, one of the key issues was transaction in the economy. Reviewing the banking industry, he blamed the sector’s inefficiency that created the reluctance in people to bank their money, which denied entrepreneurs the opportunity to access money to create wealth.

He agreed that there was an improvement in the banking service today, but said, however, that if Nigeria was going to achieve economic growth, an intermediation function must take place to enable those who need this money for wealth creation to have access to it, stressing that “it is critical we achieve what economists call financial deepening.”

Also speaking at the forum, the chairman of APCON, Lolu Akinwunmi, said the lecture was part of the body’s contribution to growing knowledge on the policy.