Businesses Must Pay Salaries Via e-Payment -CBN

• Businesses Must Pay Salaries Via e-Payment -CBN

In an effort to ensure transparency and efficient tax payment system, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mandated all businesses operating in Nigeria with more than 20 employees to adopt electronic payment for their salary payments and other financial obligations.

Banks across the country have started notifying their customers with business accounts. Access Bank in an e-mail to customers stated: “The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed that all private and public organisations with more than 20 employees must implement an electronic payment system for salaries, taxes, pensions and suppliers.”

The bank added that the e-payment platforms were secure, users friendly, cost-effective and provide access to bulk and multiple payments such as salaries, vendor, suppliers, payments and other remittances with ease.

The apex bank continues to push businesses and individuals to key into its cashless policy initiative through the use of electronic payments, this way there would be accountability and transparency of transactions and due taxes.

The Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, earlier said data has shown Nigerians now preferred electronic payments as 711.29 million transactions valued at N40.48 billion were performed in the second quarter of 2019 alone.

He said, “Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System) shows that PoS transactions increased by 4,692 per cent between 2012 and 2018 from N48.46bn to N2.3tn while electronic transfers increased by 1,967 per cent from N3.8tn to N80.42tn.

“Paper based cheque transactions declined by 32 per cent from N7.48bn to N5.03 bn. Similarly, statistics from NIBSS on electronic transfers from June to November 2019 showed that the number of transfers below N10,000 accounted for 61 per cent of the number of electronic transfer transactions.

“This is a confirmation that the reduction of the charges for micropayments has huge potential for financial inclusion.”