Cash withdrawal: Senate fails to Interrogate CBN chiefs
The Senate withdrew from its plan to question the officials about the cash withdrawal limit policy that the apex bank unveiled on Tuesday after screening the two freshly re-appointed deputy governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Red chamber had instructed the committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions to ask the top bank executives for clarifications when evaluating them for reappointment on Wednesday during the plenary session.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s proposed policy, which would limit cash withdrawals for individuals to N100,000 and corporate bodies to N500,000 per week, has been the subject of ongoing controversy. The apex bank chiefs, however, told the Senate Committee that it was past time for Nigeria to adopt the policy.
Punch correspondent noted that the senators did not go further into the specifics of the program, instead merely asking the deputy governors for an explanation.
According to Mrs. Aishat Ahmad, the Deputy Governor of the CBN for Financial System Stability, the strategy was first implemented in 2012 under the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan and expanded to Abuja and six other states in 2013.She informed the committee that the CBN’s current complete implementation of its cashless strategy is nothing new, as the necessary steps in that regard were already made in 2012 with Lagos State serving as a pilot program, and in 2013 with Abuja and six other states.Although the CBN has not yet fully implemented the policy since then, Ahmad continued, “its introduction has brought about a lot of transformation in the banking and payment system.
Honorable Chairman of this committee and distinguished members, I am grateful for the chance to present on the anticipated N100,000 withdrawal cap for private individuals and N500,000 for corporate bodies per week, starting on January 9, 2023, in accordance with the cashless policy established in 2012.
“According to information available to CBN, the time has come to fully implement the proposed weekly limit on cash withdrawals policy.”
“The necessary infrastructure for its implementation is available across the 774 local government councils in the nation,” she continued. “This includes the financial access point system, mobile money, E-naira, etc.
Banking transactions in Nigeria were formerly only possible through bank branches, but they are now being conducted through a variety of electronic platforms and a geometric growth in the number of agents, from 88,000 to 1.4 million.
However, the CBN governor claimed that the apex bank is adaptable and will be prepared to take into account views as long as they don’t make the policy onerous for any group of Nigerians throughout execution.
Following her presentation, the committee, which is led by Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central), asked the CBN chiefs to “take a bow and go,” on a motion made by Senator Orji Kalu (APC, Abia North), who also serves as the committee’s deputy chairman, and seconded by Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe).
