Following a plenary debate yesterday, the Senate has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to considerably adjust its recently announced cash withdrawal limits in response to the public outcry against the new policy.
CBN had two weeks ago in a memo announced a limit on cash withdrawals made by individuals and organisations with effect from 9 January 2023 and also directed that over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities do not exceed N100, 000 and N500,000, respectively, per week. The directive also says that only N200 and lower denominations should be loaded into banks’ ATM machines.
But the lawmakers argued that the withdrawal threshold set by the CBN is unrealistic considering the economic situation in the country.
They however in their resolution, asked its Committee on Banking and Finance to embark on aggressive oversight of the apex bank as it implements the policy and gave periodic reports to the Senate.
