The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cashless policy program on Monday kicked off in the Federal Capital Territory, Kano, Anambra, Abia, Rivers, and Ogun states.

This despite the House of Representatives call last week that the CBN to implement the policy in phases and remove charges or limits on daily cumulative withdrawals and deposits to encourage small businesses.

Owing to challenges, ranging from poor ICT infrastructure to network issues, the CBN says the project will focus on key commercial and urban centers of Onitsha, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Aba.

The cashless policy was introduced in Lagos in January 2012 with specific limits and charges for individuals or corporate organisations that want to withdraw or lodge cash above prescribed limits.

Under the policy, the CBN pegged the daily cumulative cash withdrawal or deposit limit for individual accounts at N500,000 per day and N3 million per day for corporate accounts.