The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has raised its weekly cash withdrawal limits set for individuals and corporate accounts to N500,000 and N5 million, respectively.

Wakadaily earlier reported that the CBN set a new cash withdrawal restrictions seek to limit over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and organisations to N100,000 and N500,000 per week, respectively, which takes effect from January 9, 2023.

However, the update on Wednesday reviewed limits under the new policy were contained in a circular number BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/015/073 and dated December 21, 2022. The circular by the Director of Banking Supervision, Mr Haruna Mustapha.

According to the CBN, any withdrawal above the set limits must be approved by the Managing Director of the bank in writing.

The circular reads in part: “Following our circular BSD/DIRIPUB/LAB/015/069 dated December 6, 2022, on the above subject and based on feedback received from stakeholders, the CBN, hereby makes the following reviews:

“The maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawal across all channels by individuals and corporate organisations shall be N500,000 and N5,000,000, respectively.

“In compelling circumstances where cash withdrawal above the limits in (1) above is required for legitimate purposes, such requests shall be subject to a processing fee of three per cent and five per cent for individuals and corporate organisations, respectively.

“Further to (2) above, the financial institution shall obtain the following information from the customer, at the minimum, and upload the same on the CBN portal created for the purpose.

Such information includes a valid means of identification of the payee (national identity card, international passport, or driver’s license), Bank Verification Number of the payee, Tax Identification Number of both the payee and the payer, and approval in writing by the managing director/Chief Executive Officer of the financial institution authorising the withdrawal.

The CBN urged banks to encourage customers to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/Pos, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.”