By Bukola Hameed
The Senate has on Wednesday 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, that threshold set is unrealistic.
Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru from Osun State said, “The threshold that had been set is unrealistic to have any robust and meaningful life to our people”.
He therefore recommended that the threshold should be N500,000 for individuals per week, as against the withdrawal limit of N100, 000 per week earlier set by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
“In supporting this CBN Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria should reconsider their decision and do N500,000 per day for individuals and N3,000,000 per day for Corporate. That will cover the fear of anybody”, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu argued.
Senator Adamu Aliero.from Niger who opined that though cashless policy is good but should be done with caution, said, “We have 774 Local Governments and only about 60% of these Local Government Areas are covered by the bank.
It is difficult to really force these people to embrace banking culture. I support the idea of cashless policy but we should do it with caution.”
In addition, some lawmakers said the policy will adversely affect Nigerians in the informal sector, those in rural communities, and ultimately put Point of Sale (PoS) operators out of business.
The Senate also resolved that the Committee should continue to embark on aggressive oversight of the Bank on its commitment to flexible adjustment of the withdrawal limit and periodically report outcome to the Senate.