The Central Bank of Nigeria, in its resolve to enforce a cashless society, has approved a fresh update on cash withdrawal limits for bank customers by reducing daily ATM withdrawals to N20,000 daily.
In a notice sent to customers across the country, some banks announced a new policy which would see customers withdraw just N20,000 daily against the N500,000 weekly withdrawal which was earlier announced.
A mail from Fidelity Bank clearly stated that “The central bank of Nigeria has revised its daily cash withdrawal limit on ATM from N100,000 to N20,000 daily effective January 23, 2023.”
This means customers will only be able to withdraw a cumulative daily amount of N20,000 across all ATMs irrespective of the bank.
Another mail seen from Wema Bank also confirmed the development and advised customers to note the daily withdrawal limit across all ATMs too.
According to TheAfricaReport, an internal memo from First Bank revealed that ATM transactions from the bank’s customers have been limited to N20,000 per day while customers with ATM cards from other banks would only be allowed to withdraw N5,000 from First Bank ATM machines.
Recall the apex bank in December 2022, announced a restriction on cash withdrawal to N100,000 for individuals and N500,000 for companies. This policy raised a lot of concern as Nigerians faulted the CBN’s decision and requested a review of the withdrawal limits.
The apex bank had gone ahead to review the withdrawal limits by raising the weekly individuals’ and corporate organizations’ cash withdrawal limits to N500,000 and N5,000,000 respectively.
This announcement was to take effect nationwide from January 9, 2023.
This recent downward review of the withdrawal limit goes ahead to cast doubts on the CBN’s readiness to produce enough new notes to go around despite complaints from Nigerians across the country.
