The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has defended its recently announced policy imposing charges on cash withdrawal by customers from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of banks other than theirs, saying it is mutually beneficial to the banks and their customers.
CBN’s Acting Director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department, John Onojah, stated this yesterday during a television programme.
He said with the implementation of the new policy, the complaints of shortage of cash at bank ATMs will be a thing of the past, while banks will be helped to recover costs on the other hand.
“We have gotten the commitment of the banks to ensure that you don’t go to the ATMs and be told that there is no money. We have ensured that when you get to the bank, at least we have set a minimum of N20,000 that you can withdraw at your wish,” Onojah said.
“The third one is to say that even in remote locations, you will have machines that are there, not on the bank premises. Then on the side of the banks, deploying machines is quite expensive; they are capital-intensive; I wouldn’t tell you how much it costs a bank to deploy just one machine.