News

ATM fees out, card maintenance fees in

March 13, 2013

"Dear valued customer, in order to serve you better, from March 2013, a monthly N100 (63 cents) card maintenance fee will be charged for all cash withdrawals within the month.'' ATM fees may be off limits in Abuja, but "card maintenance fees" are fair game, as evidenced by the above customer announcement from Nigeria's First Bank.

Last November, the bankers' committee in Nigeria agreed to a ban on all ATM transaction fees both in and out of network. According to Business Daily Online, First Bank has met the hit to its bottom line with a new fee on the cards themselves, something that was not prohibited by the committee.

The bankers' committee decision was an accommodation of the Nigerian government's cashless policy, which seeks to make it more desirable for citizens to keep their money in bank accounts, accessing it only as needed at an ATM. The government hopes that this will keep Nigerians safer from robbery while boosting the country's growing economy.

Not surprisingly, bank customers took exception to the new charge.

"What 'maintenance' are they doing on the card?" civil servant Ejiro Fidel said to Business Daily Online. "This is very wrong and I hope that those in charge would stop [the practice]. I think that they should focus on how to encourage customers to use the card [rather] than discouraging them. This new charge is really anti-customer friendly."

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