On Wednesday, lawmakers fought back against the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) plan to limit individual cash withdrawals to N100,000 and corporate cash withdrawals to N500,000 per week beginning January 9, 2023.
Senators who opposed the proposed policy said that Nigeria was not ready for it because it would hurt the rural population. They also said that it was absurd, ambiguous, anti-people, and could cause widespread uprisings across the country in the rural areas.
In response to public outcry, the Senate has issued a new order to the CBN regarding the cash withdrawal policy. It has asked the apex bank to raise the proposed N100,000 per week for individuals and N500,000 per week for corporate bodies.
The Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions, chaired by Senator Uba Sani, APC, of Kaduna Central, has been mandated by the Upper Chamber to conduct vigorous oversight of the Bank regarding its commitment to flexible adjustment of the withdrawal limit and to periodically report on the results to the Senate.
Despite this, the Senate endorsed the CBN’s ongoing implementation of transformational payments and financial industry initiatives in accordance with the CBN Act’s mandate.
Following a heated debate among senators regarding the proposed policy following the Chairman’s presentation, Wednesday’s resolutions were a follow-up to the adoption of the report of Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions.
In his show of the report, Congressperson Uba Sani contended that the arranged Money Withdrawal Cutoff points was effectively thought out by the CBN for change of the Country’s economy and that the activity falls inside the command of the Pinnacle bank as accommodated in area 2(d) and 47 of its surviving Demonstration.
He claims that between 2013 and 2014, the implementation of the Cashless policy in six states reduced the cost of currency management by 15.20 percent, from N36 97 billion to N31.35 billion. However, in 2014, the six-state currency handing cost increased by 17.20 percent between 2014 and 2015 as a result of the suspension of cash deposit charges. Since then, the cost of currency management has gone up. The total cost of currency management for the first ten months of 2022, ending in October, was N47.25 billion.
Senator Ajibola Basiru, APC Osun Central, argued that the proposed thresholds of N100,000 and N500,000 withdrawals per week for individuals and corporate bodies were unrealistic during debate on the report and recommendations, which were later adopted as resolutions. He stated that “laws are made for people and not people made or created for law.” As representatives of the people, we must intervene if the CBN is using a policy to make life difficult for Nigerians in violation of sections 2(d) and 47 of its current Act.