LAGOS, NIGERIA: Small and medium-scale business owners, traders and some corporate organisations have devised means of beating the maximum cash lodgement stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the cash-less policy. The development is to prevent the business owners from being penalised by the banks for exceeding the maximum daily lodgement of cash.
It was gathered that some individual account holders and corporate organisations, which prior to the introduction of the cash-less policy, operated single accounts, had opened multiple accounts under different names to enable them deposit beyond the allowable daily limits. The CBN had announced that effective from April 1, 2012, daily cumulative withdrawals and lodgements in banks by individuals would be limited to a maximum of N500, 000.
The bank also pegged the daily cumulative withdrawals and lodgements by corporate institutions at N3m effective from the same date. The test run of the scheme began in Lagos State on that date.A senior employee of Gilstar Nigeria Limited, a home appliance dealer at the Alaba International Market, Lagos, who simply identified himself as Mr. Anayo, said the cash-less policy initiative had not yet been fully accepted by traders.
He noted that though many banks in the area had provided Point of Sale terminals for traders and registered businesses in the market, lack of awareness on how to use the machines had hampered their acceptance.
Asked if the banks were penalising them for using multiple tellers to lodge cash above the stipulated sum into a single account, Anayo said, “At times, they frown on it, but most times, they pretend not to know, or maybe, in the actual sense, they do not remember. And this is especially so when you make the deposits at different intervals.
“Most of us keep cash in the banks’ bulk rooms these days because we deal with cash a lot here. Many customers who patronise our businesses come with cash and it is only a few that know how to use the PoS machines. If the CBN can educate people the more on how to use the machines, maybe cash transactions will reduce.”
A manager at Fedan Group Nigeria, which deals in large scale sale and distribution of telephones, said “With the implementation of the policy at the beginning of this month, many corporate businesses here now operate up to four accounts even in the same bank.”
The source, who pleaded not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the subject, told our correspondent that it would be difficult to immediately stop the lodgement of cash by large and medium-scale businesses.
Commenting on the development, an official in the Corporate Affairs Department of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Henry Ndiulo, said the cash lodgement and withdrawal limits were still in force and insisted that no customer would be allowed to pay beyond the limit, even if they used multiple deposit slips.
“They cannot pay beyond the maximum limit and whoever does that will be penalised as stated by the CBN. And mind you, any bank found wanting will face the music. So, I doubt if it is possible to go beyond the stated limits,” Ndiulo said.
A top management source at CBN insisted that the bank would not back down on its position on the maximum deposit and withdrawal limits and urged customers to comply with the directive. “A lot of channels have been made available to make this cash-less policy initiative stress-free and I don’t think the CBN has plans to review the policy any time soon,” the source, who pleaded not to be named, said
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