By Emmanuel Uffot
There is palpable anxiety among bank customers as the new cash withdrawal limit policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), took off today Monday January 9, 2023.
Under the revised cash withdrawal limit, limit of over the counter cash withdrawal by individuals is N500,000 while that of Corporate bodies/ Organisations is pegged at N5million weekly.
Similarly the limit for withdrawals in Automated Teller Machines ( ATM) is N20,000 daily same as Point of Sales ( POS).
The new policy also states that, in the event of compelling circumstances where cash withdrawal exceed limits required fir legitimate purposes, such request will attract a processing fee of 3 percent for individual and 5 percent for organisations. The policy further indicates that on such cases, the banks are required to obtain some information from the customer and upload the same on the CBN portal created for that purpose.
The information include, valid means of identification of payee, like National ID, International Passport, Drivers licence , BVN of the payee, Tax Identification number ( TIN) of both payee and payer and written approval by the MD/CEO of the financial institution.
Also henceforth third- party cheques above N100,000 shall not be eligible for payment over the counter, while extant limit of N10 million on clearing cheques will still subsist.
Also in the policy is a proviso that monthly returns on cash withdrawal transactions above the specified limits is expected to be rendered to the Banking Supervision, other Financial Institutions Supervision and Payments System Management.
It could be recalled that in the initial withdrawal limit announced by the apex bank on December 6, 2022 the maximum withdrawal limit over the counter was N100,000 weekly while that of Corporate bodies was N500,000 weekly. The outcry that followed it led to the National Assembly summoning the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele on the issue. It was the pressure that led Emefiele to make a slight upward adjustment for cash withdrawal limits over the counter for individuals and organisations from N100,000 to N500,000 and from N500,000 to N5million for individuals and corporate bodies respectively.
Findings show that deposit money banks today have started the implementation of the cash withdrawal limit policy.
Apart from the cash withdrawal limit which is giving many Nigerians sleepless nights especially those with deep pockets, another monetary policy introduced by CBN recently which has further deepened the worry of many, is the newly redesigned Naira which circulation began on December 15,2022.
Going by the CBN directive the old notes will seize to be legal tender by January 31, 2023.
However what has created worry in the minds of people is that the new notes in N200, N500 and N1000 are not in circulation in cities talkless of rural areas thereby fuelling apprehension how many will be able to dispense with old notes for new ones before the deadline.
The banks said they have short supply while CBN say they are enough in stock for banks to circulate.
Last week, a directive came from CBN directing commercial banks to stop over the counter withdrawal of new notes, but rather load the ATM with new notes to heighten circulation.
But Director of Corporate Communications CBN Osita Nwanisobi said CBN has not banned from paying customers new notes over the counter, rather the directive to them to dispense new notes through ATM was to complement over the counter transactions and increased the circulation of the redesigned notes.
He said the banks have enough notes to circulate ahead January 31 deadline which is fixed.
However findings from the banks show that what has inhibited the dispensing of the new notes is because only one denomination of the new notes has passed the test of dispensing seamlessly through thier ATM machines. Consequently, the banks are said to be working on reconfiguring the ATM to be able to dispense the new notes.
We further gathered that the intention of most banks is to push the N500 and N1000 notes into circulation through ATM as their research showed that their demands are higher than N200 note.
For now the new CBN Cash policy still remains a nightmare to many rich Nigerans that kept a chunk of their cash outside the bank.
