The cashless policy introduced by Central Bank Of Nigeria, CBN, in Lagos in 2012 and in five states and the country’s capital city, Abuja, on 1 October, 2013, will come into effect nationwide on 1 July, 2014.
Suspended Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, announced the introduction of the cashless policy with the pilot scheme taking off in Lagos in 2012.
The second phase of the scheme took off in Abuja, Rivers, Anambra, Abia, Kano and Ogun.
The policy limits daily cash withdrawals and deposits for individual customers to N500,000 while corporate customers can withdraw only N3 million.
A penalty charge is applicable for deposit and withdrawal daily limit irrespective of the channels, whether it is through ATM, third party cheques paid across the counter, etc.
For the individual account type, deposit above N500,000 attracts 2 percent charge on the excess, while withdrawals above N500,000 attract 3 percent charge on the excess.
For deposit in corporate account, if it is above N3 million, it will attract 3 percent charge on the excess, while if the withdrawals are above N3 million, it will attract 5 percent charge on the excess.
Categories of bank customers exempted from charges for cash transactions in terms of deposit only are ministries, departments and agencies of the federal, state and local governments on lodgements into accounts operated for revenue collection only.
Government owned institutions such as schools and hospitals do not enjoy this exemption.
On deposit and withdrawals, those exempted are: embassies, diplomatic missions, multilateral and donor agencies, accredited agents of embassies, Micro finance banks and primary mortgage institutions.
For an easy transition into the cashless era, banks such as GTB and Sterling Bank , among others have advised their customers to use alternative e-channel services for their transactions.
The e-channels include internet banking, Glo Verve M-pin, Visa and Verve cards, POS terminals, Sterling Money, etc.