CBN’s Unjust Withdrawal Fines -By Peregrino Brimah

Dr. Peregrino Brimah

The explanation of this nationwide fine on bank customers cannot be comprehended in view of modern financial standards. It is unprecedented. Nowhere in the developed world are such fines slammed on the citizenry. Rather citizens are enticed by the banks to keep their money with them. “Rewards” and “bonus points” are given to customers for transactions in developed nations rather than they being fined and forced to keep their money with the institutions.

In a practice unheard of across the world and in the history of mankind, the Nigerian Central Bank has, this July, instituted fines for the withdrawal of personal and business deposits in banks across the nation. What the new policy means is that for any Nigerian withdrawing more than ₦500,000 any day, he will be fined 3-5% depending on how much more cash he or she withdraws.

In this bizarre “cashless policy” initiated by the former Central Bank governor, not only does withdrawal of your cash attract a fine but also, as unbelievable as it sounds, Nigerian depositors are being charged 2% for making these deposits. The former Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who concocted this illegal levy was unsurprisingly a bank man, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of First Bank Plc, and the taxation is being completed by another bank man, the current governor, Godwin Emefiele, who was also CEO of a Nigerian bank, Zenith Bank.

The fines on deposits and withdrawals seized by the banks as can be imagined, do not go into the federal treasury or to charities but to the banks owned by Nigeria’s cabals, and in which both governors, former managing directors of banks, have friends, shares and other vested interests.

In Nigeria we have fines for transactions, fines for replacing debit cards, fines for receiving bank advert text messages, fines for using the ATM, fines for bank statements, fines for withdrawal tokens, “value added tax,” and as many more exploitative ideas as the banks think up.

A Nigerian customer reacted on Twitter on Saturday, July 11, @Mos_Hygh 20m: “I don’t care if the CBN is trying to reduce the demand on USD, to charge me 5% withdrawal fees on money I kept for just a week is criminal.” We are not sure/convinced by what the publicised intent of this bank fine is. To discourage the transportation of cash because of thieves that Nigeria’s government’s sabotaged security agencies fail to apprehend? To monitor 100 percent of private monetary transactions? The explanation of this nationwide fine on bank customers cannot be comprehended in view of modern financial standards. It is unprecedented. Nowhere in the developed world are such fines slammed on the citizenry. Rather citizens are enticed by the banks to keep their money with them. “Rewards” and “bonus points” are given to customers for transactions in developed nations rather than they being fined and forced to keep their money with the institutions.

I have, in the past, listed a host of other fines and levies slammed on Nigeria’s vulnerable populace by the banks. In Nigeria we have fines for transactions, fines for replacing debit cards, fines for receiving bank advert text messages, fines for using the ATM, fines for bank statements, fines for withdrawal tokens, “value added tax,” and as many more exploitative ideas as the banks think up. In contrast, abroad customers do not get a single of these fines and levies. They can deposit, transfer and withdraw as much money as they want with not a cent taken in fines.

We charge Nigeria’s attorneys and senior advocates (SANs) to raise up a class action against Nigerian banks and the Central Bank on behalf of all Nigerians to regain the billions that we have been robbed off in all the frivolous fines and levies of these institutions.

We charge the Nigerian executive and legislature to bring down the hammer on the Central Bank that has, under the operation of bankers, conspired in executive, politician and cabal orchestrated frauds, looting the nation’s treasury and continually pursuing a dangerous course of robbing Nigerian masses to the tune of billions in a ponzi scheme.

We urge the immediate termination of the regime of the bank governor and for bank mangers and bankers to never again be appointed in charge of the nation’s Central Bank. Banks should find more entrepreneurial ways of making money with our generous deposits in their charge, rather than conniving with the Central Bank to rob us for every service or disservice.

We charge Nigeria’s attorneys and senior advocates (SANs) to raise up a class action against Nigerian banks and the Central Bank on behalf of all Nigerians to regain the billions that we have been robbed off in all the frivolous fines and levies of these institutions. We are no slaves of the cabal. We demand our freedom.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah; http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian