The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reduced the charges of electronic transfer, ATM withdrawal and card maintenance fees.
The new charges were contained in the guide to charges by banks and other financial institutions released by the CBN on Sunday, December 23.
According to the changes, bank customers will henceforth pay N10 for each electronic transfer below N5,000, and N25 for electronic transfer between N5,000 and N50,000.
The Herald gathered that the new rule, which takes effect from Wednesday, January 1, stated that electronic transfer above N50,000 will be at the cost of N50.
The apex bank’s latest guide to charges reduced the charges for withdrawals through other bank’s ATMs from N65 to “maximum of N35 after the third withdrawal within the same month.”
The CBN also removed the Card Maintenance Fee (CAMF) on all cards linked to current accounts, with a maximum of N1 per mille for customer induced debit transactions to third parties and transfers to the customers’ account in another bank on current accounts.
In his explanation, Isaac Okorafor, the CBN’s director of corporate communication, said that the current NIP charges apply to use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), purchase with cash-back will cost N100 per N20,000 withdrawal that eventually amounts to N60,000 in one day.
Okorafor also made it clear that for cards linked to savings account, a maintenance fee has been reduced from N600 per annum to N200.
He said that charges for reactivation or closure of accounts like savings, current and domiciliary have been removed while status enquiry at the request of the customer (like confirmation letter, letter of non-indebtedness and reference letter) will now attract a fee of N500 for each request.
One of the CBN’s new rules also stated that there will be a penalty of N20, 000 for any bank that places arbitrary charges on customers and that the penalty will continue daily unto the said financial institution adheres to the regulation.
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