The maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals by individuals and business entities through all channels has been raised by the Central Bank of Nigeria to N500,000 and N5,000,000, respectively.
The instruction is found in a circular that the bank released on Wednesday and signed by Haruna Mustafa, director of the banking supervision department.
Two weeks after, the CBN lowered the weekly over-the-counter cash withdrawal limits for individuals and business organizations to N100,000 and N500,000, respectively.
The bank also limited daily withdrawals at point-of-sale terminals and automated teller machines to N20,000.
According to the circular, CBN said it did the review due to feedback from stakeholders.
“The CBN hereby makes the following reviews: (1) the maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawal across all channels by individuals and corporate organisations shall be N500,000.00 and N5,000,000.00, respectively.
“2. In compelling circumstances where cash withdrawal above the limits in (1) is required for legitimate purposes, such requests shall be subject to a processing fee of three per cent and five per cent for individuals and corporate organisations, respectively.
Further to (2) above, the financial institution shall obtain the following information from the customer, at the minimum, and upload the same on the CBN portal created for the purpose: valid means of identification of the payee (national ID, international passport, or driver’s license), bank verification number (BVN) of the payee, tax identification number (TIN) of both the payee and the payer, and an approval in writing by the MD/CEO of the financial institution authorising the withdrawal.
“Third party cheques above N100,000 shall not be eligible for payment over-the-counter, while the extant limit of N10 million on clearing cheques still subsist.”
The CBN said monthly returns on cash withdrawal transactions above the specified limits should be rendered to the banking supervision department, other financial institutions’ supervision and payments system management departments.
“Compliance with extant AML/CFT regulations relating to KYC, ongoing customer due diligence and suspicious transaction reporting etc. is required in all circumstances,” it added.
“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.
“The above directives supersede that of December 6, 2022 and take effect nationwide from January 9, 2023.”
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