Picture this.
It's 1996, McDayo Plc needs to pay vendors for a building contract. Mr. Dike, Head of the Finance department issues cheques to the different parties. Their representatives come over to McDayo headquarters to pick up the cheques. One of the Vendors, Unicorn Builders Enterprise heads straight to the bank to cash the cheques. Some hours later, he’s out of the banking hall with a Ghana-must-go bag full of cash.
Good times. Cash was king.
Cash as a means of value exchange dates back to 650 BC. Rulers, soldiers, merchants, and everyday people made transactions using silver coins, and other types of tokens. Over the years, governments have created banknotes and coins as means of legal tender.
Cash has advantages no doubt. It is tangible and works well for simple everyday transactions.
However, cash is no longer king in any economy that is serious about growth.
We now see a direct correlation between upward economies and the adoption of cashless policies; for example, countries like France, the UK, USA and Germany are bullish in their drive for cashless policy adoption.1
One might argue that African countries are still far from full adoption of cashless policies and they would be accurate. However, here are some reasons why we're making these bold statements:
The benefits companies gain from adopting cashless transactions are enormous.
Today, business leaders must start taking bold steps towards driving non-cash options as the main element of their payment systems. This means leveraging digital payments models that provide better audit trails, cross-border commerce, and overall growth for their businesses.
Key benefits for businesses that take this bold step include:
As more businesses adopt non-traditional means of transacting with each other, we believe that in less than a decade, we will say goodbye to B2B cash-based payments.
After all, no king reigns forever.