When the Central Bank of Nigeria released the March 1 memo to announce an increase in withdrawal charges across Nigerian banks, complaints about a new stifling economic policy flooded the internet.

The memo was announced by the CBN in February and took effect on March 1.

To prevent any form of misinformation about the new charges, FIJ did an explainer to spell out the specifics of how much was to be charged on what amount and who gets what.

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CBN pegged the withdrawal charges for on-us withdrawals, not-on-us withdrawals and off-site withdrawals.

For on-us withdrawals, that is, withdrawals from a customer’s bank ATM, withdrawal would continue being free. But for not-on-us withdrawals, which refers to withdrawals made from another bank’s ATM, N100 would be deducted as charges per N20,000. For off-site withdrawal, that is, transactions from ATMs not located within a bank, N100 would be charged per N20,000, including a surcharge of up to N500 per transaction.

While this increment was already being lamented by the Nigerian populace, FIJ’s findings with ATMs around Lagos show that banks have been charging way above the specifications outlined in the CBN release.

WHERE DO THESE CHARGES GO?

FIJ experimented with five banks. Not only were they all guilty of charging beyond the CBN regulation, but none could give a definitive explanation for the irregularities.

In the first experiment on March 5, FIJ withdrew N3,000 from an Access Bank ATM located in the bank using an FCMB ATM card. Surprisingly, the charge incurred from that transaction was N207.50, an amount that overshoots the figure in the CBN’s instructions.

On March 13, FIJ withdrew cash with an FCMB card from ATMs located in Sterling Bank, Keystone Bank and Access Bank. The amount withdrawn in these instances was lesser than the N20,000 the CBN pegged its charges at N100. The charges incurred on each of them, despite not being on-us and on-site withdrawals, were N100 each time.

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On March 14, FIJ repeated a N3,000 withdrawal, but this time, with a Union Bank card from an on-site Access Bank ATM, but the results stayed the same.

FIJ found similar complaints on X which suggests that the abrupt charges were commonplace.

Apart from these inexplicable charges, the responses FIJ got from banks involved when it sought answers left more questions about where the money goes.

While the CBN circular states that the review was undertaken “in response to rising costs and the need to improve (the) efficiency of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) services in the banking industry” suggesting that a bulk of the money might be going to the banks that own each ATM, the responses FIJ got from the visits to the banks involved showed that it was not that straightforward.

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“You can complain to FCMB once it is a credit or debit on your account, not Sterling Bank,” one of Sterling’s customer care desk attendants said when FIJ asked for clarifications.

“The complaint should be channelled to your bank because we don’t have any human intervention [and] because you don’t bank with us. Noting that those charges are not coming directly to us. So, any questions you have as a non-customer should be channelled to your bank, they would offer you what is obtainable,” a female Access Bank representative responded.

“This arrangement is between the banks. Access Bank can’t just debit you without having a backup authority from CBN based on the arrangement on how customers should be debited while using another bank’s ATM, which I might be able to give you what is applicable to your own bank.”

Another female Keystone Bank representative who spoke to FIJ on Friday narrated how she could not withdraw from the Keystone ATM with her First Bank card when she saw the N100 charge on the ATM screen.

“That thing they said, they told us, as you read and I read that it’s from N20,000, but I don’t think that is how it works. I guess it’s for any amount,” the Keystone representative said.

When FIJ visited FCMB, the customer assistant said she could not answer FIJ’s question. She asked FIJ to make use of their internal telephone to speak to the bank’s Communications Department.

The female voice on the telephone confirmed the N207.50 charge FIJ got on May 5. She however said it could have been because FIJ withdrew N3,100. But when FIJ said it was impossible to withdraw such an amount, the female voice said she would escalate it further and give a response on Monday.

FIJ also asked why N107.50 was deducted for the three withdrawals on Thursday, but the FCMB rep said she could not readily give an answer, and that she would also escalate it and revert on Monday.

Contrary to the response FIJ got from Access Bank, the Union Bank representative who spoke to FIJ on Friday said the N107.50 base charge that FIJ incurred from the N1,000 withdrawal was not for Union Bank.

“Do you know that this money that they (Access Bank) debited you is not for Union Bank? This money is not coming to Union Bank, it’s going to the bank (ATM) you have used (to withdraw),” the female Union Bank representative said.

“If you use Union Bank, you can withdraw as much as you want. So, they expect you to use your bank. The other bank [ATM] you are using, they will charge you.”

While complaints about these humongous charges flood various social media platforms, the CBN has remained silent.