Months after banks restricted withdrawals on automated teller machines (ATMs), commercial banks in the country are beginning to increase the maximum amount of cash customers can withdraw on a daily basis to N200,000.

In an emailed notice to customers, Zenith Bank said customers can now ‘perform cash withdrawals of up to N200,000 per day’ at its ATM terminals across the country.

This, it said, is irrespective of the bank that issued the card.

The bank, however, stated that the N500,000 weekly cashless policy withdrawal limit for individuals still stands.

There are insinuations that other banks in the country may follow this path, by allowing their customers to withdraw, through ATM terminals, large amounts in the region of N200,000, even though they have not made it public.

Before now, most banks had put a limit of N20,000 daily withdrawal on their ATM terminals mainly for cards issued by other banks. The limit had been put in place during the naira redesign policy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had, last December, limited weekly cash withdrawals over the counter to N100,000 for individuals and N500,000 for organisations. It also set daily cash withdrawals at point of sale (POS) and ATM terminals at N20,000 per day, with the directive taking effect from January 9, 2023.

Customers had resorted to seeking out their bank ATMs where they could make more withdrawals, or making cash withdrawals over the counter. 

A circular issued by the apex bank during the period stated that “the maximum cash withdrawal per week via ATM shall be N100,000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawal per day.

“Only denominations of N200 and below shall be loaded into the ATMs. The maximum cash withdrawal via point of sale (POS) terminal shall be N20,000 daily.”

The limits on POS as well as denomination part of the statement have, however, not held ground as cash withdrawals limit through POS has since been in excess of N20,000 while all ATMs are dispensing only N1,000 and N500 notes.