By Uche Mbah
The World Health organization has warned that handling currency will increase the risk of contracting COVID 19, thereby tending to lend credence to the conspiracy theory that Covid 19 was man made-and directed to force the world into cashless society.
WHO was reported to have told the London Telegraph that the public should avoid use of cash in transactions, as the virus is expected to last longer on the notes, which cannot be laundered with water. The organization claims the virus can stay on the notes for days. They recommended immediate hand wash after handling cash.
According to the telegraph, the Bank of England has also confirmed that cash can carry the disease.
Nigerians are slow entrants into the global move towards cashless transactions. An estimated eighty percent of transactions are done via cash. This has increased since the central Bank policies of BVN and single account, which increased transactions outside the banking hall.Many high profile contracts are being paid in cash.
China, the epicenter of the disease, has been reported to have destroyed $600 million worth of local currency that has passed through Wuhan and other endemic areas.
Conspiracy theorists are claiming that the disease, which broke near China’s only biochemical laboratory used for research into biological warfare, is used to force the world into speeding up implementation of cashless economy, thereby promoting crypto-currency. World bank is reported to be mulling the establishment of its own crypto-currency . Ironically, China has put their move to cashless transactions on hold because of Covid 19.
It is difficult to see the implementation of the policy of washing hands every time money is touched.
Currently, hand sanitizers are out of stock in shops and supermarkets, and wherever found, are cost prohibitive.
Nigeria has appeared to be lucky since there has been no African that has contracted the virus on African soil. Chinese scientists claim that the skin composition of Nigerians prove resistant to the virus. The only case of infection, an unnamed Italian, is said by government to be responding to treatment though critics of the government are skeptical, claiming that they are using the case to launder money since the case appears to face many controversies.
