ATM charge reintroduced to improve services, says CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria has justified its decision to introduce N65 charge on remote-on-us Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) transactions in the country, saying that the policy would create competition among banks and lead to improvement of services to customers.
CBN cancelled N100 on any remote-on-us withdrawal in 2012, citing the need to encourage people to use the ATM of other banks.
However, the recent announcement of the reintroduction of the charge sparked public criticism.
But the apex bank stated that the decision is in the economic interest of the country, as that the removal of the charges had a negative effect on the cashless policy while some individuals abused the zero charge for use of ATMs of other banks.
“The wear and tear as well as the frequency of servicing the ATMs has increased significantly,” read a statement on CBN website.
“Indeed, some customers were beginning to abuse the use of ATMs through countless withdrawals. This development has led to increase in cash transactions, which negates the bank’s cashless policy. If a part of this cost goes unabated, the banks may be forced to reject transactions coming from their customers at other bankz’ ATMs, thereby frustrating the inter-operability of payment systems.”
Maintaining that ATM is expensive and requires economic incentive to maintain, CBN said the zero charge led to free cash withdrawal and increased cost for the banks, as they had to pay for the use of other banks’ ATMs by their customers.
The CBN assured that the long-term interest and welfare of all bank customers remain a priority in the goal of all its banking policies.
Since 2yrs now after CBN abolished N100 charge on use of ATM, how many Banks have collapsed because they were unable to bear the cost of maintaining the so called “wear and tear of their ATM machine” or because they were unable to shoulder the cost from other banks. The truth is that, we are in a country where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.