CBN orders banks to refund withdrawal charges in 30 states

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has ordered banks in the country to refund charges made on customers for daily cash withdrawal or deposits exceeding set limit in the 30 states that full cashless policy transactions has not taken place. The CBN disclosed that the new policy on cash-based transactions has not officially taken place in all the states of the country.

Briefing newsmen after the 322 Bankers’ Committee Meeting in Lagos weekend, Mr. Kolawole Balogun, who represented the Director Banking Supervision Department of the CBN, Tokunbo Martins said “At the meeting we agreed that banks should refund the charges made on customers for withdrawal and deposits in those states that cashless policy has not
taken place.”

According to him “ The cashless policy has officially taken place in five states and federal capital, Abuja. The states are Lagos, Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers States, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.  The CBN has not officially announced the take off implementation of full cashless policy in other states other than the already stated states and federal capital territory, Abuja, due to some infrastructure bottlenecks.

We are allowing ample time for the banks to deploy adequate infrastructure needed to support the cashless policy as well as enable additional sensitization of various bank customers on the merits of the policy. There are telecommunication, power and other problems that are yet to be addressed.” The
CBN has introduced a new policy on cash-based transactions which stipulates a ‘cash handling charge’ on daily cash withdrawals or cash deposits that exceed N150,000 for Individuals and N1,000,000 for Corporate bodies.

The new policy on cash-based transactions (withdrawals & deposits) in banks, aims at reducing (not eliminating) the amount of physical cash (coins and notes) circulating in the economy, and encouraging more electronic-based transactions
(payments for goods, services, transfers, etc.).

Tokunbo further noted that the CBN will sanction delinquent debtors whose names were published by banks if they refused to negotiate with their banks on how to pay their debts. “The publication of debtors names is ongoing and banks will be doing this on quarterly basis” he added.

Speaking on domiciliary account, Mr. Segun Agbaje, Chief Executive Officer, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc said “said “The restriction on domiciliary account is just the cash deposit.

Every other things remain the same. Payment of school fees, medical treatment etc can be done through the domiciliary account.

Any person or company that need foreign currency can go through the CBN’s window and get whatever it wants provided it is a genuine who cannot meet the official window requirements that can go to parallel market. The essence is to strengthen naira and make Nigeria less import dependent.”

Trade volume between Nigeria and France hits N1.35trn, says French Envoy

The outgoing French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr
Jacques de Labriolle, has put the trade volume
between Nigeria and France in 2014 at more than
N1.35 trillion.

Labriolle told NAN on Sunday in Abuja that the
volume of trade in 2013 was not different from the
2014 figure, describing 2014 as a “very difficult
year” for both countries.

“The current exchanges, if you add up import and
export, are a little more than six billion Euros.
“We buy every year about four billion Euro
(approximately N900 billion) of crude oil.

“And we re-export between 1.5 billion Euros
(approximately N340 billion) and two billion Euros
(approximately N450 billion) of French products
including refined oil products.

“2014 was a year was very difficult because of
Ebola crisis and because of the slowing down of
business because of the elections.

“But basically, we made in 2014 exactly the same
figure as in 2013; the 2014 result was 12 per cent
more than 2012.”

Labriolle said that the volume of the trade was
good as it was now on the increase, stressing the
need for the trade curve to be on a steady rise for
15 years.the whole African continent and has been for a longtime.”

The envoy said France was working to increase her
political and diplomatic relations with Nigeria.
According to him, the economic relations have been
growing because of the country’s investments
particularly in the petroleum sector.

“What we are trying to do is to put political and
diplomatic cooperation at the same level where oil
and oil exploitation have put them in a long term.

“In fact, France is one of the main investors in
Nigeria because of Total, which have, in fact, more
than 50 billion Euros (approximately N11.3 trillion)
investment in Nigeria.

“So it is a very long term relationship, which has
started with oil about 50 years ago and which is
now diversifying into other fields such as electricity
and industry,” he said.