Nigeria Limits ATM And Bank Withdrawals To Only $45 A Day For Customers And Businesses In An Attempt To Push CBDC

Nigerians are in an uproar with the Nigerian government and central bank for attempting to limit the daily amount citizens can withdrawal from ATMs, to try and fizzle out the use of cash in the country whilst promoting the Nigerian central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The announcement was made on the 7th by the Central [Bank] of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigerian-based outlet Daily Post reported that the initial spin given to justify this move to heavily limit withdrawals is to deal ‘a heavy blow to looters of government funds, kidnappers and fraudsters.’

According to Nigerian publication Vanguard, Haruna Mustafa, Director of the Banking Supervision Department at the CBN, explained that ordinary residents, and businesses and corporations will all be subject to this move and will only be able withdrawal a small number of Nairas, the official Nigerian currency.

Daily withdrawals will be limited to N20,000 and a max of N100,000 a week; or U.S. $45 and $225 dollars respectively. Corporate organizations will be limited to N100,000 ($225) in daily withdrawals and N500,000 ($1,125) for the whole week.

In-person transactions at banks will also be subject to the same rules.

Furthermore, the CBN has directed all deposit money banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions (OFIs) to only load N200 bills ($0.45) and lower into the ATMs.

The CBN said in a statement in November that these are part of their broader “cashless policy.”

Further to the launch of the redesigned naira notes by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, and in line with the cashless policy of CBN, all deposit money banks and other financial institutions are hereby directed to note and comply with the following: the maximum cash withdrawal over the counter by individuals and corporate organizations per week shall henceforth be N100,000 and N500,000 respectively.

Withdrawals above these limits shall attract processing fees of 5.0 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 million on clearing cheques still subsist; the maximum cash withdrawal per week via Automated Teller Machine shall be N100,000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawal per day.

Only denominations of N200 and below shall be loaded into the ATMs; the maximum cash withdrawal via the point of sales terminals shall be N20,000 daily.

In compelling circumstances, not exceeding once a month, where cash withdrawals above the prescribed limits are required for legitimate purposes, such cash withdrawals shall not exceed N5 million ($11,235) and N10 million ($22470) for individuals and corporate organisations, respectively, and shall be subject to the referenced processing fees in above, in addition to enhanced due diligence and further information requirements.

Further to above, you are required to obtain the following information at the minimum and upload same on the CBN portal created for the purpose.

The CBN’s press release stated

Dr. Uju Ogubunka, President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), praised the move but did note that the implementation may be tricky, as the country is nowhere near ready to implement such a move, and that such a move may actually increase criminal activity.

What they are telling us is that we should use online banking more than we use cash. They are not stopping us from using the money in our accounts. What they are saying is that we should focus more on using electronic payments to do more of the transactions.

But given the level of our people and even the use of mobile applications for banking transactions, it might be a big challenge. Like I was telling somebody earlier today if I want to buy vegetables in the market, how do I transact that business without cash. It will be very difficult. We don’t expect that we will be carrying phones to transfer money to market women.

There are areas you can apply electronic banking and there are areas you cannot apply it.

This policy will result in reduced business patronage especially for those who may not be able to use mobile banking applications. Because of I have to buy things using cash and the cash is not available and there is nothing I can do about it, it will restrict me from buying or buy on credit, that is if you have sellers who will be magnanimous to do that for you these days. It is certainly going to dampen cash-related businesses.

Until we are able to get the infrastructure that will be able to give us seamless transactions and things like that. Right now, the infrastructure we have is not as much as one would expect and that is why customers complain of failed transactions and all of that.

Also, many people have been complaining about failed transactions for instance when they do transfers and make payments online they end up saying those transactions didn’t get to the beneficiaries. I know these things because I have been to the banks myself to ask questions and customers also complained to the association. Quite a number of fraud, uncertainties, lack of trust we still have a lot of that in the system.

If we have real infrastructure for these things, we won’t have problems. Until that is done, what the policy is telling us is that we cannot do business beyond that level in a week.

Though he has his reservations, Prince Saviour Iche, the President of the Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN), says that this is an overall positive move to help Nigeria ultimately go cashless.

The problem we are having is that most of these policymakers do not consult the stakeholders in most of their policies. They don’t. The problem of this country is the wrong policies.

If the CBN governor has engaged the civil society group and the businessmen and women I believe that we would have been able to put heads together. For instance, a business friend of mine was telling me last week that he doesn’t do transfer, he believes in going to the bank to do all his transactions because he is afraid of losing his money. He is not an illiterate but a business person, who is trying to be careful. So, what happens to people, who do daily business?

What CBN doesn’t understand is that people would be afraid to take their money to the bank, they would rather stock it at home to run their businesses. I believe the policy is for only withdrawals, but, if it is for transfer too or deposits, then there would be serious problems.

Some market women who engage on daily business and carry cash around, they go to bank almost daily to safeguard their money, what happens.

Olojo Victor, President of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), pushed back against this move and contends that it will only ruin business, and simply will not be tolerated by businesses and the people.

They want to send us out of business. We are against this. It is counter-productive. It does not represent what the CBN initially stood for in terms of financial inclusion. This is not driving us forward.

It is a punishment for an average Nigerian. A bag of rice is N48,000. That means if I want to go to the market I can’t take cash. How will I do the transaction?

We don’t have the technological infrastructure to support this policy. Nigerians have not been sensitized. There is no alternative and you are taking out cash. You are running a cash-dominant economy as we speak.

Cash still remains king whether we like it or not. Go to the average market we still have more cash transactions than PoS and suddenly you want to seal cash without bringing alternatives and education and sensitizing Nigerians on how the alternatives work. This will not fly. It is not suitable. It is a good idea but not at the right time.

In a statement to Daily Post, Professor Godwin Oyedokun, a don of Accounting and Financial Development at Lead City University in Ibadan, pushed back against naysayers and said that this will not hurt more rural communities.

It is not targeted towards the poor; nobody should blackmail this initiative because of their self-interest. People that couldn’t afford food and still have N20,000 cash in their pocket, and you still rank them as poor people? The answer is no; anyone handling 20,000 is no longer lacking in terms of basic needs.

I give you an example that couldn’t afford food would have N20,000 cash in their pocket, and you still rank them as poor people? The answer is no if anyone handling 20,000 is no longer lacking in terms of basic needs.

Some shenanigans will say, what about people in the rural areas? I give it to you that if you go to these so-called rural areas, you won’t be there and see anyone without a phone, no matter the quality. In these rural areas, some have more than one phone. When we say poverty level, we are talking about people’s inability to have basic needs. It presupposes that they don’t have the capacity to have cash of that magnitude. This policy will affect those charged with governance in this country; they have a lot of money to toy with.

The policy will reduce the volume of money in circulation and the capacity for the rich to spend anyhow.

We also expect that as cash is drained from the economy that that might reduce demand pressure for dollars, thereby impacting the exchange rates of the Naira positively. There is no doubt that there will be negative collateral consequences for those who deal largely in cash. Collections at churches and other prayer places where cash is the medium will be impacted negatively. There are many compatriots engaged in POS transactions that might also be affected. And therefore, there will be the inevitable need for adjustments and repositioning.

But a word of caution; the enemy is in effective implementation. Therefore, to say the obvious, the CBN has its job cut out and must be intentional about effective implementation.

Even some of the financial gurus and professors are standing with the central bank, many other politicians and citizens have since then pushed back against this concept that is set to be implemented by early next year.

Howbeit some of them are taking a bit of a lukewarm approach, such as Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of specifically going after the ‘political class,’ but ultimately is still fine with a cashless system, reported by domestic outlet Punch.

What is breeding poverty? Economic policies. Look at the one that is about to be implemented by the Central Bank which would further throw the country into poverty. Nobody is saying the economy shouldn’t be cashless. Take time and do it systematically. We shouldn’t do it as if some people wanted to be politicians and they were denied the opportunity, then they use their office to punish the politicians.

He said

Furthermore, Punch also reported that many of the Senators had planned to ‘grill’ the CBN for this move, but then backed out during the session. During the meeting the Deputy Governor of CBN on Financial System Stability, Mrs. Aishat Ahmad, had this to say:

Though full implementation of the policy has not been carried out by CBN since then, its introduction has brought a lot of transformation in the banking and payment system.

Distinguished Chairman of this committee and members, I’m happy for the opportunity to make presentations on the planned N100,000 withdrawal limit for individuals and N500, 000 for Corporate Bodies per week, beginning from 9th January 2023, in line with the cashless policy introduced in 2012.

Based on information available to CBN, the time for full implementation of the policy with the proposed limit on cash withdrawals per week is now.

On top of this, Ahmed revealed the reason why the CBN is mandating this move: to promote the use of their CBDC, the E-Naira, cited by the Premium Times

The required infrastructure for its implementation in terms of financial access point system, mobile money, E-naira, etc, are available across the 774 local government councils in the country.

All fears and worries being expressed by Nigerians about the planned limited cash withdrawal policy are seriously being taken care of as nobody or a section of Nigerians, will be left out.

In the past, banking transactions in Nigeria were limited to Bank Branches alone as the only means, which has now expanded into multiple electronic platforms as well as a geometrical increase in the number of agents from 88,000 to 1.4 million.

Nevertheless CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele did acknowledge that CBN may “tweak” the policy later on to ensure a smoother transition, according to a separate article by Vanguard.

We think, Nigeria as a big country, the biggest economy in Africa that we need to leapfrog into the cashless economy. We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 per cent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitization have gone cashless.

I said it at different fora, that this is not targeted at anybody, it is meant for the good and development of the Nigerian economy and we can only continue to appeal to Nigerians to please see this policy the way we have presented it.

We will be reviewing from time to time, how this is working because I cannot say that we are going to be rigid. But it is not to say that we will reverse it, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tweaking some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.

We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are making life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them. So, there is no need for anybody to worry. The CBN is monitoring what is happening and I can assure everyone that we are up and alive to our responsibilities and we will do what is right for Nigeria and Nigerians.

The WinePress has reported on the worldwide push to implement CBDCs for each country’s prospecting banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing they will be conducting a 12-week pilot program with many American megabanks last month, a month after they announced they will be testing out a carbon-based social credit score with many of these same banks.

SEE: Biden Signs Executive Order To Usher In ‘The Future Of Money,’ Bringing In Regulated Currency

International Man reported in November that the launch of the E-naira was a massive flop by all accounts, as only 1 in 200 Nigerians actually used the digital currency. This was after already providing discounts and other incentives to drive acceptance. At the time Bloomberg reported on the currency’s bellyflop, noting that Nigerians view the eNaira as “a symbol of distrust in the ruling elite” and that the people view the government as “hostile to them and therefore have no interest in anything it introduces.”