THE much publicised commencement of ‘Cashless Lagos’, on Tuesday, being the first working day of the year, was riddled with confusion

as some of the bank workers, particularly the tellers did not understand the nitty-gritty of the policy.

Investigations carried out by the Nigerian Tribune in some of the banks in Lagos showed that customers that went to lodge or withdraw above N150,000 were subjected to a long wait in efforts by the bank officials to get directives and clarifications from their respective head offices.

In one of the branches of an old generation bank at Ketu, Lagos, affected customers were seen being educated on the implications of above the limit lodgment/withdrawal, oblivious of the fact that the charges will actually commence on March 31 this year.

This situation was replicated in some other banks on Lagos Island. At Access Bank and Union Bank branches on Marina, the managements deployed the customers’ relations units to educate customers on the new policy.

The cashless policy, an initiative of the Bankers Committee, was introduced by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to migrate from cash-based economy to electronic payment economy.

It chose Lagos for the pilot project effective January 1, 2012 and would extend to other major cities by June this year.

Under the policy, the apex bank said only Cash In Transit (CIT)-licensed companies were allowed to provide cash pick-up services. Banks will cease cash in transit lodgment services rendered to merchant-customers in Lagos from December 31, 2011, stating that any bank that continues to offer cash in transit lodgment services to merchants will be sanctioned accordingly.

According to the apex bank, cumulative daily limits each for withdrawal, and for deposits for individuals, the daily free withdrawal limit will be N150,000, while the daily free deposit limit is also N150,000. The limits, it stated, applied to the account so far it involves cash, irrespective of channel: over the counter, ATM, third party cheques encashed over the counter, in which cash is withdrawn or deposited.

“If an individual withdraws N50,000 over the counter, and N150,000 from the ATM on the same day, the total amount withdrawn by the customer is N200,000, and the service charge will apply on N50,000, the amount above the daily limit.”

The limit, according to CBN, also applies to cash brought through CIT companies, as the CIT company only serves as a means of transportation.

“Any bank found to contravene the guidelines or the intentions of this policy shall be sanctioned accordingly,” the apex regulator warned.

It will be recalled that the CBN a few months ago, licensed about three companies to handle shares services for banks, including cash in transit currency sorting/management services as a strategy to reduce cost of transactions in respective institutions.

However, CBN said the service charges/fees would not apply until March 30  this year, to give people time to migrate to electronic channels and experience the infrastructure that had been put in place.

“Therefore, banks should continue to encourage their customers to migrate to available electronic channels, and where possible, demonstrate the costs that will accrue to those that continue to transact high volumes of cash after March 31st in Lagos.”

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Sanusi's Pet Project - What a Dumb A@@
written by Charles Tola, January 04, 2012

For a country still reeling in serious infrastructure decay, unreliable, and unstable electricity, poor communications transmissions, yet the Sanusi man thinks the atmosphere is ripe to play a wanna be with the advanced world through this electronic form of transactions for banking transactions. I wonder how the illiterate market women would survive this arrant nonsense. According to report, one cannot deposit or withdraw over N150,000 per day else you pay fees on the amount above the limit, did Sanusi understand how this will make the market women especially vulnerable to the robbers, due to large cash holding? What about the passing the cost of extra fees of depositing more than 150,000 a day to the consumers which will make the cost of purchasing products higher.
If Sanusi is to follow through his copy-cat style, common sense suppose to tell him that even in the USA, there is no limit to the amount one can deposit into the account. And where an amount over US10,000 is deposited by anyone the bank has procedures for notifying the appropriate agencies. So a sensible CBN governor who is not ignorant, I assume of the cash society style of Nigerians would copy-cat well by stipulating a limit equivalent to US10,000 which is N1,600,000 per day, even though per day mandatory regulation is not in place in the USA.
Some of these policies you guys come up with, if not coming from your half-baked mind, it is coming from agencies like World bank and IMF, and being sucked up by you guys who want to please the 'masters' to the detriment of the interest of the populace, coupled with the fact that you guys are too lazy to analyse and thoroughly assess the likely adverse impact on the masses. God will punish you all, and I mean it.

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