The Developing Eight (D-8) Organisation for Economic Cooperation, said on Tuesday it would launch its customised Payment Card System (PCS) to promote financial transaction among member countries.
The D-8 Secretary-General, Amb. Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, said in Abuja that the PCS initiative sought to encourage trade-deals on local currency among D-8 countries.
He spoke on sideline of activities marking the official signing of the D-8 agreement on Health and Social Protection programmes organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He defined the PCS to be means of value currency that would enable the member states to use D-8 payment cards funds in their designated bank accounts as local currencies.
According to him, the D-8 seeks to enlarge its priority areas which are trade, industry, agriculture, food security, transportation and tourism, therefore the PCS to promote cooperation in the organisation.
“We are now building a system at least at the private sector level; we are working toward creating what we call the D-8 PCS that will use only local currencies.
“Naira will be there and other currencies will be used, it is not that we do not like Euros or Dollars.
“We should try whether this is possible for us to address some of the issues that we are facing in the use of all local currencies.
“So that when people send their money in one currency from one member state to another country using the other one there should be a special exchange rate.
“I think that will address a lot of financial security issues,” Ku Shaari, said.
He explained that when scheme becomes operational, it would provide platforms whereby people could carry out business transactions safely using banking system at any given point in time.
He further said that the packaging of the PCS had reached advance stage and that it would be officially launched at the D-8 summit in June, 2020 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He, however, said the use of the card system would not be limited to citizens of D-8 member countries alone, but people who were interested in other parts of the world.
NAN reports the D-8 which was launched on June 15, 1997 comprise eight developing economies such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey.
