The much talked about cashless Lagos formally commenced on Sunday amid further clarifications from industry regulators and top state government officials.
The cashless policy, an initiative of the Bankers' Committee, was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to drive development and modernisation of the nation's payment system in line with the Vision 2020.
It is meant to gradually move the nation away from a cash-based economy to electronic payment system in line with what obtains in developed economies of the world.
Lagos State had been chosen as the pilot project before spreading to some key cities in the country by June this year.
Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune showed that though the policy took off during the public holiday when banks were not open for business, the CBN, banks and Lagos State government officials had spent the last few weeks enlightening members of the public on the desirability and modalities for effective implementation of the policy.
Only last week, the apex bank shifted the service charges/fees for those transacting cash above the stipulated amount in Lagos to March 30, 2012, stressing that it was in order to give people time to migrate to electronic channels and experience the infrastructure that had been put in place.
"Therefore, banks should continue to encourage their customers to migrate to available electronic channels, and where possible demonstrate the costs that will accrue to those that continue to transact high volumes of cash from March 30th, 2012 in Lagos State."
CBN explained that the service charge for daily cumulative deposits above the limit into an account would be borne by the account holder, noting that during the pilot in Lagos, individuals paying money from Lagos, into an account outside Lagos, would bear the charges for any single transaction above the daily limit.
"Charges/fees shall apply for all transactions in Lagos, and on Lagos State based accounts. Transactions initiated out of Lagos State, and affecting a Lagos based account shall not attract charges/fees, and shall not be counted as part of the daily," it stated.
The limits are cumulative daily limits each for withdrawal, and for deposits. For individuals, the daily free withdrawal limit is N150,000; while the daily free deposit limit is N150,000. The limits apply to the account so far as it involves cash, irrespective of channel for example over the counter, ATM, 3rd party cheques encashed over the counter, etc in which cash is withdrawn or deposited.
For instance, if an individual withdraws N50,000 over the counter, and N150,000 from the ATM on the same day, the total amount withdrawn by the customer is N200,000, and the service charge will apply on N50,000 - the amount above the daily free limit). The limit also applies to cash brought through CIT companies, as the CIT company only serves as a means of transportation.
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