The Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution asking the Central Bank of Nigeria to direct all Deposit Money Banks operating in the country to suspend the monthly N50 they charge their customers for the maintenance of Automated Teller Machine cards.
The resolution followed a motion moved by Senator Gbenga Ashafa, on the illicit and excessive bank charges on customers’ accounts.
The Senate also directed its Committee on Banking Insurance and other Financial Institutions and Finance to conduct an investigation into the propriety of Automated Teller Machine card maintenance charges in comparison with international best practices.
Ashafa expressed dissatisfaction with excessive charges by Nigerian Banks.
He lamented that most banks have deliberately manipulated their ATM machines not to dispense more than N10,000 per withdrawal in some cases and in most cases not more than N20,000 per withdrawal, adding this is deliberate ploy to manipulate the ATM machine.
According to him: “ost banks deliberately manipulated their ATM machines not to dispense more than N10,000 per withdrawal in some cases and in most cases not more than N20,000 per withdrawal at the ATM.
“This is a deliberate ploy to manipulate the ATM machine, which are ordinarily manufactured to dispense as much as N40,000 per transaction, in order to attract more bank charges from customers, who are forced to carry out more transactions due to the manipulated machines.”
Other Senator who spoke like Emmanuel Bwacha and Adeola Olamilekan kicked against excessive charges by Nigerian banks on Customers account with particular focus on the ATM.
The Senate also Mandated the committee on Banking to invite the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele to appear before the committee in order to explain why the official charges as approved by the CBN are skewed in favour of banking institutions against ordinary customers to the banks.
In addition, the lawmakers Urged the Customer Protection Council to be up and doing in taking up the plight of ordinary Nigerians by looking into the various complaints of excess and unnecessary charges by Nigerian Banks.
