Nollywood star Yul Edochie has sparked national debate after publicly urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to revive Nigeria’s suspended cashless policy, arguing that it once played a key role in reducing kidnapping and restoring the value of the naira. The actor made the appeal on his verified Instagram page on Wednesday, July 3, 2025.
Edochie praised the Central Bank’s initial cashless drive under the Buhari administration, claiming it made low-denomination notes valuable again and disrupted criminal activities by restricting the circulation of physical cash. “It increased the value of the naira tremendously… and helped reduce kidnapping massively,” he wrote in a message addressed to President Tinubu.
The actor, who is also a controversial political commentator, noted that while the policy faced resistance during its rollout, it helped stabilize commodity prices and forced digital accountability in financial transactions. “When it was introduced, it brought prices down, even N10 and N20 notes had meaning again,” he added.
His comments triggered an immediate wave of responses across social media. While some users backed the actor’s stance, others lambasted his suggestion, citing widespread hardship, poor network infrastructure, and chaos experienced during the policy’s implementation in early 2023.
Critics recalled the queues, app crashes, and financial exclusion that plagued rural communities during the cashless enforcement phase. “Do you know how many people suffered?” one user asked, while another quipped, “A lotto ambassador wants to lecture the president on economic policy?”
Despite the backlash, others welcomed Edochie’s intervention, describing it as a patriotic call for smarter financial reforms in the face of persistent inflation and rising insecurity. “We believe you. Tinubu will fix Nigeria for sure,” one supporter replied.
The Central Bank has yet to respond to the renewed public interest in the suspended policy, but analysts say the call comes amid fresh pressure on the naira, which has lost over 40% of its value since January 2024. Whether the presidency will revisit the policy remains unclear, but the conversation reignited by Edochie is far from over.
