Commercial banks in Nigeria have begun enforcing withdrawal fees on Automated Teller Machines transactions by their customers from March 1, 2025.

The implementation is in line with the direction of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Many of the Deposit Money Banks on Friday sent notices to their customers that implementation of the directive would commence today.

One of the leading commercial banks, Ecobank, in a statement, said “Dear valued customers, please be informed that effective March 1, 2025, a new ATM transaction fee will apply to all Ecobank cardholders, in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive.”

The bank further informed its customers of the various transactions that would attract charges such as offsite withdrawals and those that would be free such as onsite withdrawals as directed by the Apex bank.

Recall that the CBN’s directive was contained in a circular dated February 10, 2025, titled, “review of ATM transaction fees, scheduled for implementation from March 1, 2025.

The apex bank stated, “This review is expected to accelerate the deployment of ATMs and to ensure that appropriate charges are applied by financial institutions to consumers of the service. Withdrawals from customer’s own bank will be free while customers using ATMs of other banks will now pay a charge of N100 per withdrawal of N20,000 or less at onsite ATMs located within or directly affiliated with a bank branch.

“Off-site ATMs, which are positioned outside bank premises in locations such as shopping malls, fuel stations, and other public spaces, will attract an additional surcharge of up to N500 per transaction. For international ATM withdrawals, charges will be based on cost recovery, where customers will bear the exact fee applied by the international acquirer.’’

The development was a response by the apex bank to rising costs and the need to improve efficiency of ATMs in the banking industry.