Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has tendered an apology for the inconveniences generated by the introduction of the cashless policy.
He made this disclosure at the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) while reacting to questions on the new policy which requires bank customers to pay charges on deposits and withdrawals above a certain threshold.
“I sympathize and regret inconvenience cashless policy will cause bank customers,” the Bank Chief said.
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Policy will stand: Emefiele insisted that the policy would continue as planned.
According to a Nairametrics report, the Central Bank of Nigeria sent out a tweet this morning in a bid to clarify its rather controversial cashless policy. According to the apex bank, extra charges will only be imposed on cash deposits and withdrawals (by individuals and companies) that exceed the official limits of N500, 000 and N3 million, respectively.
Despite the explanation, Nigerians have continued to express their utter displeasure over the policy. Many of those who responded to the CBN’s latest tweet said the explanation was unnecessary. For them, the apex bank needs to focus on more important issues, like how to make the naira have more value.
The charges: The CBN disclosed its intention to charge bank customers making cash deposits and withdrawals from Thursday, September 19, 2019. The charges, according to the Central Bank, would attract 3% processing fees for withdrawals and 2% processing fees for lodgments of amounts above N500,000 for individual accounts.
CBN also made known that for corporate accounts, the Deposits Money Banks (DMBs) would charge 5% processing fees for withdrawals and 3% processing fee for lodgments of amounts above N3,000,000.
The policy has continued to attract widespread criticism from all corners including members of the House of representatives who demanded that the policy should be suspended.
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Extra Developments: The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today retained all key rates. Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) was retained at 13.5%, CRR retained at 22.5%, and Liquidity Ratio at 30%. The asymmetric corridor was also retained at +200 -500 basis point.