Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said an effective cashless policy in Nigeria can help stem the rise of illicit election financing by making it possible to track the funds.
Osinbajo was speaking at the Presidential Villa on Monday when he received a delegation from the European Union Electoral Observation Mission headed by Barry Andrews, the Chief Observer.
The vice president said: “I think what we should be looking at is providing more infrastructure. The cashless thing has been really advantageous and helps with follow up. That kind of infrastructure is helpful for greater financial inclusion, and the more financial inclusion you have, the easier it is to track.”
According to Osinbajo, “so much money can be spent without being tracked” under current electoral financing practices in the country.
While noting the difficulty of controlling election financing due to cash transactions, Osinbajo said there are still infrastructure problems necessary to ensure an efficient cashless system in the country.
“With cash transactions, it is still difficult to seriously control electoral financing,” the vice president observed.
On the issue of electoral crimes, Osinbajo pointed out that the National Assembly has the Electoral Crimes Commission Bill and “we hope that a new system of attention to electoral crimes will begin, which would be of great help.”
The VP emphasized: “In general, one should not expect INEC to be the investigator of electoral crimes. I believe that law enforcement agencies should be responsible for arresting and prosecuting offenders, state by state.”
