Amid the chaos caused by the naira scarcity across Nigeria, Governor Godwin Obaseki has ordered Edo officials to stop cash transactions from March 1. 

The Edo governor is backing President Muhammadu Buhari’s naira redesign police that has thrown families and businesses into chao. 

“I have issued a circular that effective March 1st, government offices will be prohibited from using cash. The government is pushing toward a cashless economy,” said Mr Obaseki on Thursday during a code of ethics engagement with the senior civil servants at the Government House, Benin City.

According to the governor, the prohibition will help his administration “to explain every amount we spend and how we earned it.” 

Mr Obaseki stressed the importance of the civil servants to effective governance, noting that “without you, we cannot have a functioning government.” 

“That is why we have, in the last six years, made your welfare a priority. We pay salaries and pensions on the 26th of each month. We have refurbished your work environment for optimal service delivery,” added the Edo governor. “Today, our civil and public servants are the most technology compliant in the country.”

He revealed that his administration is developing resources to connect “every local government via fibre optic” before October.

“We have a crisis in our hands where we are trying to change and improve things for you. Most of you want that, but there are still a lot of people who still behave the way they used to behave in the past,” Mr Obaseki explained.

The governor added, “If we struggle every month to make sure you get your salary on time, why must you now feel that focusing on other areas, trying to make money from other areas illegitimately, is what we should still be doing by this time?”

Mr Obaseki pointed out that “waste and corruption in our public service” must be reduced.