The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that only cash deposit into domiciliary account can be withdrawn over the counter and not through electronic transfer.
The apex bank disclosed in a tweet, stating that deposits made through electronic transfers into domiciliary accounts can only be transferred but cannot be withdrawn as cash over the counter.
The CBN added that cash deposits also made into domiciliary accounts can only be withdrawn as cash over the counter and not transferred out of the domiciliary account.
The CBN tweet said “Only transfers into domiciliary accounts can be transferred from such accounts while cash deposits into such accounts can only be withdrawn in cash.”
Meanwhile, the tweet was made in response to speculation that the apex regulator in Nigeria had banned the acceptance of foreign currency as cash deposits in Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).
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The CBN denied that it had given any such directive to the DMBs operating within the country and any information contrary to this is false.
The CBN tweet said “The CBN has not prohibited acceptance of foreign currency as cash deposits by DMBs. Rumors to the contrary are false”
What this means: If a bank customer made an electronic transfer of $5,000 into his domiciliary account and later goes to the bank to make a cash deposit of $10,000, making a total of $15,000 in the account. Such customer can only make withdrawals from the account in the manner/medium he used to make the deposits into the domiciliary account.
It means if the bank customer needs to make a payment of $12,000 or initiates a transaction of $12,000, he can only pay $5, 000 through electronic transfer and the reaming $7,000 would have to be paid in cash.
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The new CBN directive comes as a surprise to Nigerians as shown in their responses to the tweets on Saturday.
UPDATE: We appreciate our readers that called our attention to error in the headline of the article published earlier. The error, which is regretted, has been rectified and corrections effected.
Policy decisions like this are ok if they will be enforced across the board. However where you create this kind of blockage, you open door for foreign currency merchants who have access to the powers that be, to have their business to flourish illegally. Lots of honest business men have been duped large sums of money by these scam foreign exchange dealers. This is another policy that is put in to help the friends of the appointors of this CBN man. How can he not know that unnecessary blockage in supply is boom policy for smuggling. It is difficult to believe this man graduated from UNN when you look at the policies he churns out. Very bad decision.
This is the kind of unnecessary, thoughtless intervention that drove the value of the dollar to over five hundred Naira before it settled at three hundred and sixty. Why can’t these people let us be?
I am just too tired of this policies CBN always forcefully impose on us
Does this people even consider us before making such policies
i laugh in spanish and cough in zulu.. How could you do such a things that will trigger a mad rush on usd. Commons Sense: Forces of Demand. This will cause usd scarcity (arificial or natural), that will in turn rise the demand of usd, and then the usd value rises..while own Ngn is ridiculed with further devaluation and ‘trash-can’ gesture. Please stop it! i beg of you.. This is not taking us anywhere rather its making our labour, and economic efforts valueless on the globe. How do we compete globally if we don’t have good purchasing power.. This is so ridiculous.
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