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Friday, December 14, 2012

How Nigerian Banks Short-Change Customers (Cashless policy)

NaijaBizCom.Com
Business Ideas & Opportunities
How Nigerian Banks Short-Change Customers (Cashless policy)
Dec 14th 2012, 21:41

Business News (Finance) — When the cashless policy of penalising cash withdrawals and lodgements of over N150,000 was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers' Committee, it was celebrated as the panacea to the huge burden of handling cash that was plaguing our deposit money banks, while the use of ATMs and POS was put forward as complimentary to the cash restriction policy.
But months down the line, it is becoming clear that the implementation of the cashless policy, especially the use of ATMs and POS machines, is leaving ordinary Nigerians in Lagos at the receiving end of what can be likened to a policy geared towards stifling business and, more importantly, taking money from the pockets of ordinary Nigerians while leaving them at the mercy of the deposit money banks.

It is bad enough that deposit money banks are allowed to charge current account holders the sum of N5 on every N1,000 that is withdrawn (COT), which is computed at the end of the month, for supposedly turning over the money in your account the same way a lady frying bean cakes uses a long-handled sieve-like spoon to flip the bean cakes in a frying pan filled with hot oil to ensure maximum frying.
It is absurd that deposit money banks are allowed to afflict their customers with sundry charges, penalties and fines as if they were at war with their customers. It is just like the relationship between the nation of Israel, with its land, sea, air and intelligence superiority, and the state of Palestine that has no standing army, no air force, no navy, and no satellites or drones, and worse, no defined borders.
But what amounts to outright theft is the ease with which deposit money banks are using ATMs to plunder and impoverish ordinary Nigerians and then using bank bureaucracy to frustrate and punish those who have the temerity to question the brazen thievery being perpetrated by the banks, and who want a refund of the money that have been wrongly debited from their bank accounts by bad or manipulated ATMs.
Twice in the last seven days, Automatic Teller Machines stationed at a certain bank's branches in Lagos have debited my accounts when I have used debit cards of other banks, without disbursing cash, and what I hear from the banks is that the debit will be reversed within 24 hours failing which I have to come in to make an official complaint at my bank. But my question is, what if the cash I wanted was all the money I had at the material time?
My banks are also advising that to minimise my agony when next my account is debited and no cash is disbursed by an ATM, I should always ensure that I use the debit card of the bank issuing it only in the branches of that bank, failing which I am in for waiting periods of between 7 to 14 days, and I am left befuddled by an arrangement that is supposedly lessening the cash burdens of banks while allowing them to steal from us.
The laws, rules and principles of banking do not change the obligation of a deposit money bank to honour legitimate demands made by a customer with sufficient funds, even if that demand is made using a debit card through an ATM, and in my opinion, the act of failing to disburse cash and going further to debit the account of the already aggrieved customer will qualify for double jeopardy.
That is why I think it would be a disaster of monumental proportions for the CBN to extend the cashless policy from its pilot application in Lagos State to the remaining 35 states of the federation including Abuja, as is currently being contemplated, by January 1, 2013.–Businessday

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