Cashless Policy: CBN Defers Charges in Abuja, Other States to October,2013.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  on Tuesday yesterday announced the deferment of charges for individuals and corporate account holders who wish to withdraw or lodge cash above the prescribed limits in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the five states where the policy was recently commenced till October 1, 2013. The other states are Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers.

The decision, according to the central bank, is to allow bank customers adjust to the new policy in the states.
The Director, Corporate Communications (CBN), Mr. Ugochukwu Okoroafor, confirmed this to Globasure News Updates (GNU)
Investigations on Monday showed that bank customers in the FCT were still struggling to come to terms with the policy.
To this end, some commercial banks yesterday notified their customers of the development.

For instance, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, in an e-mail to its customers, said: “The Central Bank of Nigeria has deferred the implementation of cashless policy charges on lodgments and withdrawals in Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers States so as to allow customers adjust to the new policy.”

The cashless policy was introduced in Lagos in January last year. It specifies charges for individuals and corporate organisations that want to withdraw or lodge cash above prescribed thresholds.
Under the policy, the CBN pegged the daily cumulative cash withdrawal or deposit limit for individual accounts at N500,000 per day and N3 million per day for corporate accounts.

However, just like in Lagos, from October 1, while individual account holders will be charged two per cent when they exceed the prescribed limit for deposits, corporate account holders that also wish to lodge cash above the limit will be charged three per cent.
On the other hand, just as cash withdrawals above the limit for individual accounts above the limit attracts a three per cent charge, corporate account holders will be charged five per cent.

Okoroafor explained: “We did the same thing when it was initially introduced in Lagos. We want to make sure that we carry everybody along. We will continue to sensitise Nigerians on the benefit of the policy.”
According   to him, the policy was designed to modernise the payment system, promote financial inclusion, minimise revenue leakages and thus increase internally generated revenues (IGRs), and reduce incidences of robbery.