ABUJA – Some bank officials in the Federal Capital Territory on Wednesday supported the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele’s efforts to strengthen the cashless policy in the country. The officials who spoke to the News agency of Nigeria (NAN) said the directive to stop charges on deposits would encourage customers immensely to deposit their cash in banks. But some of them told NAN under condition of anonymity that the directive would lead to loss of revenue to be generated by their various banks. A female staff at the Zenith Bank in Wuse said that “the removal of charges on deposit directive” was a welcome development. According to her, the directive will go a long way to help to mop up cash in the country. “I think it is okay; at least people will not keep their money in vaults at home, since they can take it to bank at no charge.
“It is obvious this will have negative impact on the banks because they will no longer make money from the deposits any longer.
“It is also risky for customers to keep money at home for security reasons,’’ she said.
She said the directive would go a long way to reduce cases of fraudulent act in banks.
According to her, the directive will also curb some unruly directives from some banks in a bid to make money from customers.
“Recently, we discovered a customer at the bank, who had 40 different accounts in different names just because he wanted to escape bank charges.
“Most accounts also now give instructions not to receive cash into their accounts, so customers that are not account holders will raise a draft which attracts charges,’’ she said.
Another official at the Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr Samuel Alabi, said there was nothing any bank could do but to comply with the CBN directive to drop all charges on deposit.
“It is a CBN directive and we cannot do anything about it, though it will stop us from getting the money we used to get from charges, we will always find a way to get by,’’ he said.
At the United Bank for Africa (UBA), an official told NAN under condition of anonymity that the directive might not be implemented immediately as the bank’s systems were programmed already.
The official said that “banks will have to re-format their systems to run with the new policy and even though it will strengthen the cashless policy in our society, it requires time for it to be implemented’’.
The CBN governor had on June 5 directed that all charges on deposits should be stopped immediately.
The governor gave the directive following complaints by customers regarding charges being imposed on cash deposits. (N
