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CBN overturns fee moratorium for off-us ATM withdrawals

Nigeria's apex bank has reversed itself once again as the government tries to realize its vision to become cashless (or, at least, less cash-driven) by 2020.

August 25, 2014

The Central Bank of Nigeria, no stranger to rule reversals, has announced that banks may once again charge their customers for off-us ATM withdrawals.

Starting Sept. 1, bank customers will be limited to three fee-free foreign ATM transactions per month, according to a report by Business Day Online.

Nearly two years ago, the central bank ruled that banks could not charge ATM fees of any kind. However, this policy has widely been held responsible for the stagnation of ATM network growth in the country, which is trying to encourage citizens to keep their money in banks and withdraw it only as needed from ATMs.

In a directive released last week, the CBN said that the charge of 65 naira (40 cents) starting with the fourth off-us cash withdrawal "is to cover the remuneration of the switches, ATM monitoring and fit notes-processing by acquiring banks.”

All home-bank ATM transactions will continue to be fee-free, the directive said. The re-imposed fee is still considerably smaller than that charged prior to the CBN's suspension of all ATM fees on Dec. 1, 2012. Previously, banks had charged 100 naira (62 cents) per off-us transaction.