According to ALGON, a ban on NFIU cash transactions would reduce corruption.

The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit has won praise from the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria for preventing cash withdrawals from accounts held by the federal, state, and local governments.

According to the group, if the policy were to be properly implemented, corruption would be reduced by 50%.

The Secretary of the ALGON Board of Trustees, Chukwudi Ezinwa, said that preventing withdrawals from government accounts will promote growth in the nation during an interview with Saturday MINIECHAT.

He thinks the new regulation is a positive step forward that will aid in reining down government expenditure.

“What NFIU has done is a positive development in my opinion,” he remarked. This is the case because any money deposited into a local government’s account must be utilized for the intended purpose.

“No level of government should handle cash, particularly in light of discussions about moving toward a cashless society. If governments don’t pay employees in cash, why should they pay for government expenses in cash?

The previous head of the Ezeagu Local Government Area in Enugu State said, “Funds will now be utilised for what is allocated for, leading to the growth of our nation.

“A local government chairman or state governor would have paid the contractor via an account and not with cash when they claim to have spent a certain amount on a project. The money will be tracked back to the contractor who was paid if anything goes wrong along the way.

Additionally, he (the contractor) must return any payments made to the account if he is unable to deliver the job.

This will prevent anyone from stealing money from the government by withdrawing cash. The sole flaw is that it doesn’t detect overestimations of projects. But the project will undoubtedly be valuable in some way.

“This would be different from the case where you claim N40 million was paid to a certain state or local government and you were unable to locate it anywhere. You will need to check out the project since now that payment must be made through transfer, it may be tracked back to someone.

Miniechat

See author's posts