Cash withdrawal limit: Senate deliberates, offers recommendations to CBN

The Nigerian Senate has deliberated on the cash withdrawal limit policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), offering three recommendations to the financial regulator.

The committee, led by Senator Uba Sani, had questioned two deputy governors of the CBN last week Thursday and was expected to submit the findings on Tuesday, however, the absence of Sani forced a postponement to December 14.

During the plenary on Wednesday, various Senators took turns to bear their minds on the new CBN policy and its impact on the people, most especially the rural areas.

Recall that the CBN had directed banks to limit cash withdrawals to N100,000 for individuals and N500,000 for businesses over the counter. Also, the daily maximum withdrawal from Point of Sale (PoS) and Auto Teller Machine (ATM) was put at N20,000.

Addressing the policy, Senator Surajudeen Basiru and Senator Orji Kalu agreed that the threshold was unrealistic, and the amount should be increased to N500,000 for individuals.

“The threshold that had been set is unrealistic to have any robust and meaningful life to our people.” Senator Basiru said, adding that “As a Committee of the Senate, we ought to have been alerted with certain indices to come up with recommendations on what should be the adjustment. I am suggesting that the threshold should be N500,000 for individuals per week.”

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Senator Kalu also told his colleagues during the debate that to support CBN’s Policy, the apex bank “should reconsider their decision and do N500,000 per day for individuals and N3,000,000 per day for Corporate. That will cover the fear of anybody.”

Senator Yusuf Yusuf and Senator Francis Alimekhena threw their weight behind the CBN policy, stating that Nigeria must embrace cashless system and can’t keep using the rural areas as a reason not to.

Alimekhena said the policy can be amended if it doesn’t work, “It is my opinion that we give this policy a chance. If we continue to talk about the rural area, we can never implement new policy.

“If it doesn’t work well then we can have an amendment,” he said, adding, “Let us try it and see what it is. For me, let us give this a policy a chance.”

Yusuf on the other hand if left to him, the highest denomination would be N100. The central bank had directed banks to only dispense N200 starting from January 9, 2023.

“Left to me, I would recommend the highest denomination to be N100. I so much support that we should go with the cashless policy in line with the present system that the CBN has adopted,” Yusuf said.

He also stated that “When we are talking about cashless, we should be mindful that about N3.3 trillion in circulation it’s only about a trillion naira that is in the bank. It is a danger to the country.”

Senator Francis Fadahunsi made a case for the rural areas after Senator Alimekhena said the country will fail to make policies if it keeps focusing on their impact on rural areas.

Fadahunsi argued that, “All of us here, including the House of Representatives, we all come from the rural areas and we know what it means. And now that we are sitting under the comfort of air conditioner, we forget that we have problems at home.”

Following arguments from both sides, the Senate resolved that the central bank should adjust the threshold due to the public outcry that trialed the cash withdrawal policy.