- Restricts ATM Transactions To N20,000 Weekly
In its bid to promote cashless policy, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday imposed liquidity restrictions on cash withdrawals in the country.
In the new policy, the CBN restricted over the counter cash withdrawals for individuals to N100,000 weekly and N500,000 weekly for corporate bodies.
The apex bank revealed this in a circular dated December 6, 2022 with reference number, BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/015/069 directed to banks and other financial institutions a copy of which was sighted by Sunrise News.
The circular is titled, ‘Letter to All Deposit Money Banks (DMBS) and Other Financial Institutions (Payment Service Banks (PSBs), Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs): Naira Redesign Policy — Revised Cash Withdrawal Limits.’
According to the apex bank, withdrawals above the limits attract five per cent processing fee for individuals and 10 percent for corporates.
The development is coming two weeks after the bank unveiled its newly redesigned notes of N1,000, N500 and N200 notes on November 23, 2022.
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The bank had in October lamented that 85 per cent of the money in circulation are not in the bank vaults and is hoarded by the public.
The CBN said, “Further to the launch of the redesigned Naira notes by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on Wednesday, November 23. 2022 and in line with the Cash-less policy of the CBN, all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other financial, institutions (OFIS) are hereby directed to note and comply with the following:
“The maximum cash withdrawal over the counter (OTC) by individuals and corporate organisations per week shall henceforth be N100,000 and N500.000 respectively. Withdrawals above these limits shall attract processing fees of five per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
“Third party cheques above N50,000 shall not be eligible for payment over the counter, while extant limits of N10,000,000 on Gearing cheques still subsist.
“The maximum cash withdrawal per week via Automat. Teller Machine (ATM) shall be N100.000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawals per day.
“Only denominations of N200 and below shall be loaded into the ATMs. The maximum cash withdrawal via point of sale (PoS) terminal shall be N20.000 daily.
“In compelling circumstances, not exceeding once a month, where cash withdrawals above the prescribed limits is required for legitimate purposes. such cash withdrawals shall not exceed N5,000,000 00 and N10,000,000.00 for individuals and corporate organisations, respectively, and shall be subject to the referenced processing fees in (1) above, in addition to enhanced due diligence and further information requirements.”
The CBN noted that customers will be required to obtain a valid means of identification.
Others will be Bank Verification Number of the payee, the Notarilized customer declaration of the purpose of the cash withdrawal.