The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, says it will start applying charges on withdrawals and deposits above N500,000 for individuals and N2 million for corporate bodies from October 2.

Tunde Lemo, the bank’s deputy governor, operations, made this known in Abuja on Friday while briefing newsmen at the end of the s pecial forum on financing the power sector reforms.

He said that the action would ensure effective implementation of the cashless policy
For three months, the CBN had halted plans to fully implement charges on customers who withdraw or deposit money higher than what was stipulated in the cashless policy document, but has announced plans to now commence its application.

“We are glad to announce that having worked with stakeholders, we’ve been able to ramp up facilities in Abuja and five other locations and then we are set to build up the critical mass requirement in those areas. We will start applying the charges from the second of October which is Wednesday because the three months moratorium would have expired,” Lemo stated.

Lemo said that from next month, any customer who deposits above N500, 000 per day would be charged two per cent payment on it while withdrawal would attract three per cent charge.

“For corporate, the threshold is N2 million, if you deposit or withdraw any money above the threshold per day, if it is deposit, it will attract three per cent charges and if it is withdrawal it attracts five per cent,” he added noting that these charges were already applicable in Lagos state.

The deputy governor also encouraged the use of electronic fund transfer methods against depositing and withdrawing over the counter, noting again that electronic payment in Lagos accounted for 70 per cent to 80 per cent of high value transactions on daily basis.

On connectivity of point of sales, POS, and efficiency of Automated Teller Machines, ATM, he said that the apex bank was working with the telecoms to expand the bandwidth for service delivery.

Lemo added that available statistics indicate that POS availability had been increased in Abuja and five other locations by five folds between January and September

“Now, we are also working with other service providers to provide the roaming facility. What will happen is that if you have a POS that is linked with MTN, if MTN is not working, it can then roam to hit other service provider and then settlement will be done at the end of the day. We are going to see a lot better connectivity in the next couple of weeks in those areas,” he stated.