NewStats: 3,262,727 , 8,177,971 topics. Date: Tuesday, 03 June 2025 at 11:33 AM 566k1t

The cashless banking initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is being hindered as the Nigerian banks continue to experience technology skills gap due to a brain drain that is consuming experienced tech personnels in the sector, LEADERSHIP can exclusively reveal.

Findings showed that the IT department of most of the banks are now manned by inexperienced hands who cannot cope with the traffic on internet banking platforms. According to sources, although, hike in brain drain in the banking sector started after COVID-19 pandemic, precisely, 2021, the banks were managing the situation, until the Naira redesign policy of the apex bank kicked off early this year, hence, spiking the rate of usage of electronic and mobile banking platforms for banking transactions, a development the current personnel manning the IT backend of most banks are struggling to cope with.

The CBN had, in October 2022, announced its intention to redesign the nation’s currency, as effort to check terrorism financing, counterfeiting and imbalances in the fiscal space, to enable the apex bank take control of the currency in circulation and to move the country into a full-fledged cashless economy, initially, by January 31st, 2023.

Since the beginning of this year, when the policy was fully implemented, Nigerians have cried out over the fact that they could barely laid hands on the new naira notes, which is the only legal currency now accepted in the economy, due to insufficient cash in circulation.

This, in turn, has forced Nigerians to turn to internet banking system for their transaction. This could have been the means to moving the economy to a cashless economy, stakeholders have said, even as they lamented the poor network, infrastructure deficit and inexperienced tech, that have marred the policy in recent time.

The CEO, Precise Financial System, Mr Yemi Okeremi told LEADERSHIP, that the banking technology in Nigeria is fairly sophisticated, with respect to the country’s level of development.

Okeremi added that the naira redesign, leading to little cash in circulation and surge in the use of internet banking system, has caused more harm than good, as the fragile infrastructure put in place by the banks have further depleted as a result of traffic.

He said, “For me, we are not ready for the cashless policy. Before this time, we had enjoyed fairly good internet and mobile banking and that is because the banks had scaled up based on what was on ground. They know the number of Nigerians who have signed up for their internet banking services and they also have idea of the Nigerians that are banked and have put infrastructure in place to service them.

“All of a sudden, the CBN then came up with the idea that all Nigerians must go cashless. This is like double of the figures that were using their internet services. There are many Nigerians who have s with banks, but not using their internet banking services. These set of people were forced to start using internet banking overnight, which has slowed down servers, thereby delaying transactions or even declining them.’’

He also said that many tech experts have left the country for greener pastures, leaving the less experienced personnel to manage the infrastructure in the bank. He said, ‘‘Most of these fresh graduates do not know the nitty-gritty on how to manage some of the software and hard ware used in the banking sector. Also, poor internet connectivity has marred the seamless transition to cashless, in the sense that, for cashless policy to work, people must transact and receive alert immediately.

“In essence, infrastructure deficit, brain drain, and social problem, whereby every Nigerians now want to use internet banking at the same time are the reasons why Nigerians are having issue with internet banking.’’

He however urged CBN to reconsider its decision. “We know cashless process is great for any economy to grow, however, CBN would have been gradual in the process of turning the Nigerian economy into cashless economy. The banking sector is doing the best they can do, because nobody envisaged the traffic of internet banking. I must commend them, however, I would appeal to them to scale up, to meet this present challenge.

“On broadband connectivity, the telecoms sector is doing its best, in that the industry is planning to scale up broadband connectivity level to like 70 per cent by 2024. If that happened, people will be able to receive alert of transaction on time,” he stated.

In the same vein, head, operations, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbolahan Awonuga, has urged the banking sector to upgrade their capacity. Awonuga said, “What the government is doing now is that they want a total cashless environment. We are taking about digital economy, but there must be some level of preparation. The bank should be able to accommodate the traffic flow of their customers.

“If everybody should go into cashless, the internet platforms of the banks should be able to manage the traffic. The reason we are experiencing delay in transaction or declined transaction, is because there are lots of traffic at the backend. People want to do internet banking at the same time, however, because of the capacity, they cannot enter at the same time.”

He advocated for more partnership with fintech companies. Awonuga disclosed that there are some few fintech companies who are working with banks to ensure seamless online internet banking, while calling for more to as effort to salvage the current situation.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP, the president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Ken Opara, noted that the industry is currently suffering from talent drain. He said, “There is a whole lot of resignations and people leaving the industry particularly the younger ones. The figure is quite high. You train and then immediately you train them, they leave the country and then you start all over again. It is a real challenge. The banking industry is losing a lot of younger ones. It is affecting the pull of manpower particularly the younger ones.

“They are moving in large numbers outside the country. We are experiencing a pull of people out of the industry to outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period. So, succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these guys are the next generation of people. That is also slowing down activity.”

Also, Head, Financial Institutions Ratings at Agusto & Co, Ayokunle Olubunmi, affirmed that the mass exodus is impacting the succession plan in the banking industry.

He said, “Some banks are already having issues with their succession plans, so they are ensuring that, for each role, they have two to three people that understand it. So, if someone leaves, there is another to take over. It is not only the banking industry that is challenged, it all of the sectors of the economy from manufacturing to insurance and banking industry. The challenge is such that it is not even the lower cadre that is moving out, it is middle management and even in some cases upper management. A lot of companies are losing their best hands and even their technical hands.

“Zeroing it down into the banking industry, one area that is actually affected the most is the tech guys. that a lot of banks are actually moving into digitization. So, people are losing their tech guys. Unfortunately, it is not a skill that is readily available like that. The talent pool is not that vast. The tech guys are moving to Canada and Europe. So, that has significantly affected them. It is such that in some banks, departments have lost a lot of their staff. All banks are affected and that is why you see all of them recruiting. This is how bad it is. For the banks, they actually have to manage it, because unfortunately as a bank, changing the trend is outside their purview. For banks, it is now about how you can actually adapt.”

https://leadership.ng/inexperienced-tech-personnel-in-banks-scuttle-cashless-banking/

Inexperienced? Or experienced negatively?

Lol. Blame blame system

Irresponsible CBN and Irresponsible management of financial institutions that will employ who they know to come and handle critical infrastructure like IT in the Financial system caused the failure. Until you stop nepotism across board, Nigeria will not realize her full potential...Let those who have funds. stolen or otherwise go and open businesses and employ people, let those who have the brains create and manage the system

There are experienced personnel out there that will do the job, but their fathers are not wealthy and so they wont have the ability to bring in deposits to the bank, so the banks will rather not employ them....lots of them are also above 24/25 years old, but our banks are so stupid that once u cross a certain age, no matter the skill you have or value u can bring, they will not employ you.

Offtopic...

I wonder why Urchins/some Nigerians are attacking Emefiele instead of Buhari their messiah. Ts's like the nonsense our teachers where doing back then... punishing student for non-payment of school fees instead of the parents.


You all know Buhari gave the directives, Emefelie works with Buhari's instructions.


I the policy and I will keep on ing it. an extremely corrupt country like Nigeria should go cashless.

We should channel all our efforts towards the banks to upgrade their servers/equipments...

H

Why am I not surprise

Only in Nigeria will bank issue you old note n won't collect it back.......
If u are surviving this country now then u need award of survival of the fittest

Gradually feeling the consequences of the japa syndrome

the summary of the whole thing is Nigeria is experiencing a serious brain drain the one we haven't experienced before.

The health sector is the worst of it all
The small doctors we have currently most are planning to leave why the few them no Sabi anything.
Just pray not to fall serious sick in this country..
Talking about the Tecn sector just forget it them don run Comot finish.
Nothing is working is this country take it or leave .. that's the truth.

To me, TINUBU is the real LOSER here, winning by crooks and fraud isn't winning to me.

I hate it when someone is a killa to win, what's the joy and happiness there? It's crook winning still called winning? He is allegedly elected on a faulty and evil foundation, that would hunt him for ever as far as he is living.

Its FAKE winning, such person and it's followers would reap the disastrous consequences of their acts. Just wait for it.

Light MUST triumph over darkness, anytime and anyway, it's a matter of time.

Lord save Nigeria from the dirty hands of evil men. 🙏

Failed transaction will take a month to resolve , rubbish banks

Nepotism won’t even let them employ best hands.

This cash scarcity of a policy is killing people.
I went in search of cash and i saw a 67years old man doing the same.
Banks issued people old cash and still refused to accept it. Do we even have a working government?

I’m not happy about this, it’s stressful. It’s better another country is throwing missiles at us than this government killing people with this cash scarcity.

I managed to see a Pos agent and i was asked to pay 6k for 10k cash.

Politicians are not affected but the poor masses.

Please a guy that goes by the name Matthew Friday Agada scammed a lady of 500,000 naira and also scammed several others by deceiving them with fake employment opportunities.

Below are his phone s and bank details.

matthew friday agada
07060746469 OPAY

Phone numbers
07060746469
08115526632
[email protected] is his email.

Please if there is a way to get this guy, I’ll appreciate.
He has caused people pains.

make them come employ me jare.

SmartGadgetz:
To me, TINUBU is the real LOSER here, winning by crooks and killing isn't winning to me.

I hate it when someone kill to win, what's the joy and happiness there? It's crook winning still called winning? He is allegedly elected on a faulty and evil foundation, that would hunt him for ever as far as he is living.

Its FAKE winning, such person and it's followers would reap the disastrous consequences of their acts. Just wait for it.

Light MUST triumph over darkness, anytime and anyway, it's a matter of time.n

Lord save Nigeria from the dirty hands of evil men. 🙏

Hackers galore in Nigeria, the brain drain is the continuity of slave trade of the 1500th century till date.

Funny article.

IT department of most of the banks are now manned by inexperienced hands who cannot cope with the traffic on internet banking platforms.

Inexperience hands who Can not cope with traffic on internet banking platforms.

It is obvious the writer doesn't understand tech.

Like the issue has nothing to do with the workers rather the technology and budget.

Are the banks willing to spend on getting the lastest tech needed.

Are they willing to spend money to get faster servers

Are adequate infrastructure put in place by the said banks to cope with the surge in the cashless policy?
This to me is shifting the blame on personnel that the banks have refused to hire, train and retrain on the job after loosing so many that have JAPA.
Here in Naija, everyone keeps blaming and shifting the blames around.

The experienced IT guys don JAPA! And the banks is not willing to yield to the demands of the few experienced ones available

There are many Nigerians who have s with banks, but not using their internet banking services.
These set of people were forced to start using internet banking overnight, which has slowed down servers, thereby delaying transactions or even declining them.

Nigeria will be great in our lifetime.

CBN use monetary policy as a political weapon hence the antecedent challenges. A serious economy team would have sat down to analyse the issues properly. The stakeholders in financial sector include CBN itself are not ready for total cashless we are facing today. Over 500 LGA out of 774 LGA in Nigeria doesn't have any presence of bank which means the informal sector of Nigeria economy is more than formal.

Warris this.

What stops them from recruiting experienced staffs after the billions they make from transfer fee charged to customers.

No lie detected!!

There's nothing there to fix....Just improve the broadband maybe from 10 gigabits per second to 100 terabits per second ... That's all.

Ogun ,sango slap Emefiele to dumbness >:. Useless talk


Useless blame on innocent IT bankers,

Then, tell the vulture head Emefiele to release our old Naira

The problem is more of IT infrastructure than personnel, what is the speed of the backbones powering their servers. Google alone have over 80 data centers around the world, below is how a typical data centers looks.