Four years after the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) kicked off in Lagos, banks have spread the charges on the policy to every part of the country.

This is coming after the successful implementation of the cashless policy in Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun, Rivers states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

With the cashlite policy, individual customers are allowed to make cumulative withdrawal of N500,000 daily across the counters and the ATMs, however, withdrawal above this limit will attract the payment of a processing fee of three per cent for the amount above the limit.

Also corporate customers are allowed to make cumulative withdrawal of N3 million daily while withdrawal above the limit will attract a processing fee of five per cent. The nationwide charges which were supposed to take effect last year July had been suspended by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, when he assumed office in June 2014. Although initially deposits above the stated limits attracted similar charges, Emefiele, as part of efforts to further encourage the policy, scraped the charges on withdrawal.

In his maiden speech where he unveiled his vision for the finance industry, he had mentioned customers’ complaints on the charges on deposits which had made many devise means to avoid the charges, such as opening multiple accounts, a move which he described as detrimental to the cashless policy. Exemptions have, however, been granted on withdrawals for accounts operated by embassies, diplomatic missions, multilateral agencies, aid donor agencies, ministries, departments and agencies of government (revenue collections only), microfinance banks (mfbs) and primary mortgage institutions (PMIs).

Source: Leadership