The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday said that it had raised the cash withdrawal and deposit limit for individuals from N150,000 to N500,000 and that for corporate bodies from N1 million to N3 million.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the CBN’s Head of Corporate Communication, Mohammed Abdullahi.
According to the statement, the proposed cashless policy will begin in Lagos from April 1 and will be extended to other cities on January 1, 2013.
“The processing fee for withdrawals above the limit for individual customers has been reviewed downwards from 10 per cent to 3%, while the processing fee for withdrawals above the limit for corporate bodies has also been reviewed downwards from 20% to 5%.
“The processing fee for lodgements above the limit for individual customers has been reviewed downwards from 10% to 2%, while the processing fee for lodgements above the limit for corporate bodies has also been reviewed downwards from 20% to 3%,” the statement said.
The CBN also said, “Exemptions have been granted to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal and state governments on lodgements for accounts operated by them, for the purpose of revenue collections ONLY.”
The bank added, “The cashless policy applies to transactions conducted in branches of banks situated in Lagos State only for now. The implementation of the newly approved processing charges by deposit money banks in Lagos State will commence on April 1, 2012. It should, however, be noted that the charges are subject to review every six months.
“Meanwhile, the pilot programme in Lagos State has now been extended to December 31, 2012 in order to allow people to be more conversant with the new initiative. As such, the roll-out of the programme in other states of the federation has been deferred to January 1, 2013.”
The bank had on last Wednesday waived the daily cash withdrawal limit of N1 million for some customer of Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs).
In a circular issued by the assistant Director (Banking and Payment System) the CBN said that due to the nature of their businesses, withdrawal and deposit by microfinance banks and primary mortgage institutions had been excluded from the policy of N1 million limits for corporate bodies.
The CBN, however, said that the cash withdrawal and deposit limits were applicable to customers of MFBs and PMIs.
The cash withdrawal limit policy started in Lagos on Jan 1 and will be extended to other states by June.
The objective is to reduce business transactions with cash