Abuja, Dec. 8, 2022 – The Senate is to seek clarifications from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its new policy on limited cash withdrawals announced earlier this week.
The new policy prescribes maximum cash withdrawal limits by individuals and corporate organisations at N100,000 and N500,000, respectively, per week.
Some senators, who spoke at Wednesday’s plenary, agreed that the new policy would adversely affect many Nigerians
The Senate Minority Leader, Phillip Aduda, (PDP, FCT), called the attention of his colleagues to the new policy while seconding a motion that the nominations of Mrs Aishah Ahmad and Mr Edward Lametek Adamu as deputy governors of CBN to referred to the committee for screening.
“Our commerce, I think, is not is not ready for this and our economy cannot take this shock.
“There is a need for us to speak about it because people are suffering and it is a very serious issue,” he said.
Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue), urged the Senate to debate the policy as a matter of urgency for the sake of Nigerians whom, he said, were extremely worried.
“My phone was inundated by calls from constituents who are outside the formal sector. People are extremely worried. You should have allowed us to discuss this issue for the sake of Nigerians.”
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, however, called for caution on the implementation of the policy, saying that many Nigerians would be adversely affected.
He said that there was the need to engage the CBN to get more details on the policy.
Lawan directed the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions to discuss the matter during the screening of the CBN deputy governors.
He said that the new policy would be debated on Tuesday.
“At the moment, I will advise that these two deputy governors had been in the CBN for the past four years. So they are part of this system. They are not new people.
“This should be part of the major issues to be raised when they appear for screening.
“I want us to be properly informed and guided. Most of us, if not all of us, have not had an engagement with that institution.
“My personal opinion is that if we want to be a cashless society, we should take time to be cashless society and not to jump on it at once. Most Nigerians will be out of business.
“But we need to take the opportunity of the screening to be better informed on the policy.” (GBN)
