The Central Bank of Nigeria has on Wednesday raised the weekly cash withdrawal limits from N100,000 to N500,000 for individuals and from N500,000 to N5 million for corporate bodies across all channels including POS and ATMs. This is following backlash from Nigerians and lawmakers that the earlier announced withdrawal limits deserved a review.
What’s more?
CBN also limited daily withdrawals on ATMs and POS terminals to N20,000 adding that only the N200 notes would be loaded into the ATMs.
Why it matters
The new withdrawal limits set by the CBN is a more friendly approach to increasing the adoption of the cashless policy. The new withdrawal limit is still a part of CBN’s plans to protect the newly redesigned banknotes against misuse, counterfeiting, and hoarding.
In case you missed it
Earlier in the month and just days before introducing new currencies into the economy, CBN announced a new policy mandating financial institutions in the country to limit cash withdrawals for individuals and corporate entities to N100,000 and N500,000, respectively, per week.
- The directive created controversy and outrage from millions of Nigerians including Nigerian federal lawmakers, business owners, corporate bodies and many more. Members of the House of Representatives further summoned the CBN governor to explain the initiative behind the decision.
Get smart
The initially set withdrawal limits would have forced many Nigerians into the adoption of digital transactions channels, included more people into the tax net, cut the cost of printing naira notes, etc. On the flip side, it would have created a black market for naira notes and increased fraudulent transactions in communities with little or no financial understanding of digital means of transactions.