Nigeria's "cash-less" policy is lagging behind the government's early expectations, according to Bismark J. Rewane, managing director of Nigeria-based Fiscal Derivatives Co. Ltd.

Rewane said that connectivity problems with POS terminals, ATMs and mobile phones was one of the issues slowing down implementation of the Nigerian government scheme.

The cashless effort is intended to reduce the dominance of cash as a payment medium, and increase the use of other payment tools such as debit and credit cards — which the government believes promotes greater security and cost control.

However, according to a report by All Africa, Rewane said that use of debit cards for purchases was still only three percent of total sales, and that in the country's largest city, Lagos, only 10 percent of merchants even had POS terminals.

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