An announcement from the Central Bank of Nigeria directs banks to cease imposing charges on cash deposits.
Issued in a circular dated May 6, 2024, and signed by Adetona Adedeji, the Director of Banking Supervision at the apex bank.
The suspension of these charges is set to remain in effect until September 30, 2024, as emphasized by the apex bank.
This directive follows the practice in Nigerian banks where individuals faced a two per cent charge on deposits exceeding N500,000, and corporate account holders were subject to a two per cent charge on deposits above N3 million.
However, in the latest circular addressed to both financial and non-financial institutions, the CBN clarifies that these processing fees are put on hold.
“Making reference to our communication dated December 11, 2023, with reference number BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/016/023 regarding the aforementioned issue, we announce the suspension of processing charges imposed on cash deposits exceeding N500,000 for individuals and N3,000,000 for corporates, as stipulated in the ‘Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial Institutions and Non-Bank Financial Institutions’ issued on December 20, 2019.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria extends the suspension of the 2 per cent and 3 per cent processing fees previously applied to all cash deposits surpassing these thresholds until September 30, 2024,” the circular states.
These developments coincide with the rise of funds outside the banking system, which saw an increase of 10.67 per cent to N3.63 trillion by March 2024.