To increase the efficiency and security of the Nigerian Clearing System, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN has reviewed the Nigerian Cheque Standards (NCS) and Nigeria Cheque Printers Accreditation Scheme (NICPAS).
According to the apex bank, this is to conform with International standard that cash and near money instruments should be reviewed after five to eight years.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, CBN explained the benefits of the review as follows:
“To further secure the cheque by addressing some of the observed fraud since the inception of version; to prepare us for future development in the payment system; graduating from T+1 to T+0 for cheque clearing; to reduce the TAT (Turn Around Time) of cheque processing at the Banks by having minimal/no reject items that require manual intervention during scanning and to take advantage of latest innovation in cheque printing and security.”
The apex bank said that as from September 1, 2019, “all new orders of cheque book must conform to the new standard, while the new and old cheques shall run concurrently for 17 months from September 1, 2019, after which the old standard would be phased out.”