Godwin Emefiele, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said there is no reversing the cash withdrawal limits introduced recently. Instead, he said the CBN would review the policy occasionally.
“We will be reviewing from time to time …But it is not to say that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing,” he said. The review, according to the governor, might involve “tweaking some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower”
Emefiele stated that the policy was thought up to aid the country’s ambition to go cashless.
“Between 2012 and 2022, almost about 10 years, we believe that a lot of electronic channels have been put in place that will aid people in conducting banking and financial service transactions in Nigeria.
“And we think Nigeria as the biggest economy in Africa needs to leapfrog into the cashless economy. We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 per cent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitisation have gone cashless.”
Emefiele made the comment after he appeared before the house of representatives on Thursday. Equally on Thursday, he had briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the new policy.
The apex bank’s fresh withdrawl policy limits daily and weekly cash withdrawal for an individual to N20, 000 and N100,000 respectively.
