Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has declared that starting from March 1, 2023, Edo State would be going fully cashless. According to him, cash transactions within the government parastatals would be prohibited starting from the 1st of March. Obaseki declared this during a Code of Ethics engagement with senior management staff of the Edo State civil/public service.
According to the governor, as part of promoting transparency, the government is pushing towards a cashless policy. Obaseki explained that “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. So, why must the service dodge transparency? We should be able to explain every amount we spend and how we earned it.
“We believe in the civil and public service as 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. Today, our civil and public servants are the most technology compliant in the country.
“We are deploying resources to ensure that every local government is connected via fiber optic before October this year.
“We have a crisis in our hands where we are trying to change and improve things for you. Most of you want that, but a lot of people still behave the way they used to conduct in the past.
“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?
“The level of waste and corruption in our public service must be reduced. If you need us to do more and make more resources available, then we must all agree to work together to cut down on the waste and the corruption in our system. We also must agree to be fair to the government and the people who pay the taxes.”
