The CBN las week announced it was reintroducing the N65 ATM withdrawal charge which it had stopped in December 2012. The decision to reintroduce the charge on “remote on us” ATM Transactions wasn’t well received by many leading the CBN to issue a press release regrading the fees. They gave the following reason for the decision to introduce the fees.
- To ensure customers get better service
- To increase healthy competition amongst banks
- Transaction volumes at other banks have increased astronomically due to the free cash withdrawal at other banks’ ATM
- The wear and tear as well as the frequency of servicing the ATMs have increased significantly
- Indeed, some customers were beginning to abuse the use of ATMs through countless daily withdrawals
- This development has led to increase in cash transaction, which negate the Bank’s cash-less policy
- Maintaining ATM is expensive and it requires economic incentive for owners to deploy and maintain these machines
- If a part of this cost goes unabated, the banks may be forced to reject transactions coming from their customers at another bank ATMs, thereby frustrating the interoperability of payment systems.
