Nigerians
will soon cry out in pain as the Central Bank of Nigeria has increased ATM card maintenance charges to a staggering
500%.
Nigerian bank customers are in serious trouble as they will soon be
paying more than N600 annually for debit card maintenance fee which is
currently N100.
This information is coming after the Central Bank of Nigeria
released its exposure draft on the revised Guide to Bank Charges at the
weekend.
While the 2013 edition of the guide had stipulated a N100 annual
charge, the revised version stipulates a monthly charge of N50 which is
500% more than the former charge. This means that customers will now pay
over N600 for card maintenance.
This will come as major shock for Nigerians as they are yet to cope
with the harsh economy only to be forced into another hardship by the
insensitive Central Bank.
The apex bank said that the review is “to ensure that the
provisions of the guide accord with current realities, and also to
address complaints from customers of financial services, requests for
clarification on the provisions of the guide and the absence of a tariff
regime for other financial institutions in Nigeria.”
Commenting on the draft, the founder of Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CAFON) Sola Salako told LeadershipNG that
“It looks like the CBN is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians who
are already complaining that charges are excessive. Why should they add
to the charges? If they are trying to encourage a cashless Nigeria, why
would they now make it more difficult and expensive to do transactions?
If this continues, we will encourage Nigerians to dump their cards and
go back to cash,” she stated.
Among the charges that were revised in the exposure draft is the
maintenance charge for foreign denominated cards which was increased
from N3,000 to N4,200 annually while international withdrawals was
reviewed to the exact cost by international acquirer as against the
current N240 per transaction. The charges for hardware token will now
cost N2,500.
