Senate seeks review of CBN’s cash withdrawal limit policy
The Senate on Wednesday at the plenary urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to considerably adjust withdrawal limits in response to public outcry on its proposed weekly withdrawal on cashless policy.
Senate’s resolution followed the adoption of recommendations of the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Matters on the recent policy of CBN on cash withdrawal limits.
Senate also urged its committee to continue to undertake aggressive oversight of the CBN on its commitment to flexible adjustment of the withdrawal limit and periodically report the outcome to plenary.
It also resolved to support the CBN in the continuous implementation of transformational payments and financial industry initiatives in line with its mandate in accordance with the CBN Act.
Chairman of the committee, Uba Sani (APC-Kaduna), while presenting the report of the committee, said there are many misconceptions about the cashless policy.
He said the currency denominations of N5, N10, N50 and N100 remain legal tender and were unaffected by the naira redesign policy and was available for use across the country.
According to him, there are currently no processing fees applied to cash deposits, saying that unlimited amounts can be deposited without charge to enable seamless and unrestricted deposit of notes affected by currency redesign.
Mr Sani said there had been significant achievements in the Nigerian payment system since the cashless policy was introduced in 2012.
He said Nigeria had been adjudged Africa’s undisputed real-time and digital payments leader in real-time transactions in 2021.
He said this translated to the sixth in terms of the world’s most developed real-time payments, behind only India, China, Thailand, Brazil and South Korea.
He said the offtake of digital and real-time payment also helped Nigeria unlock $3.2 billion of additional economic output in 2021, representing about 0.6 per cent of the country’s GDP.
However, some senators, before the adoption of the recommendations of the report, raised concern over the planned implementation of CBN’s cash withdrawals limit, while some supported its implementation, saying that it was for the ultimate good of the country.
The Senate, also at plenary, confirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination of Aisha Ahmad and Edward Adamu for appointments as deputy governors of CBN.
(NAN)
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette
States
Independence: NBA urges Nigerians to expect better future
The NBA said that ordinary Nigerians should be deriving benefit from the subsidy removal rather than hardship.
Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices
Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”
NationWide
Tinubu govt promises to improve police welfare, infrastructure
President Bola Tinubu’s government has pledged to prioritise police infrastructure and personnel welfare to improve service delivery and ease officers’ hardship.
World
Midterm election results not acceptance of Democrats but rejection of Republicans: DeSantis
“This was not a positive view of the Democrats,” said Mr DeSantis. “This was a rejection of Republicans in Washington.”
Abuja
AFD seeks stronger partnership with Nigeria to boost economic growth
Christophe Lecourtier, CEO of AFD, says the agency seeks to strengthen France’s cooperation with Nigeria to promote growth and advance shared interests.
World
NASA satellite crashes back to Earth after failed rescue attempt
A research satellite has fallen back to Earth after a rescue mission by the U.S. space agency NASA failed.
Economy
Bank collapse sparks financial, political crisis in Paraguay
The collapse of one of Paraguay’s largest banks has triggered a financial and political crisis, with millions of customers fearing for their savings.
World
240 million Nigerian adolescents, others worldwide report no active days in one week: WHO
The World Health Organisation says about 240 million adolescents worldwide reported no physical activity on any day last week, raising concerns about young people’s health.
