CBN To Sanction Banks Who Fail To Dispense Cash Via ATMs

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced plans to penalise banks that do not dispense cash through their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), as part of its efforts to maintain adequate cash circulation.

The apex bank’s Governor, Yemi Cardoso, stated this during a press briefing at the end of the 297th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
Cardoso emphasised that all deposit money banks must ensure availability of enough cash for withdrawals at all times.

He disclosed that the apex bank has set up a monitoring system to ensure compliance, stressing that any bank not adhering to this directive will face penalties. Cardoso reiterated that the CBN’s monitoring and spot-checking system would keep track of banks’ compliance, and those failing to meet the requirement would be sanctioned.

“We ourselves, have devised a monitoring system, a spot-checking system, whereby we will go to the banks and just ensure that these things are done in the way and manner in which they are meant to be done. And if they are not, again, there will be sanctions but I believe that at the stage we are in now, everybody realises that stakeholders play their part in ensuring that cash gets to the desired places they are intended to be,” he said.

Cardoso added that the CBN plans to release an additional N1.4 trillion into circulation over the next three months to improve cash flow within the banking system. This, he said would ensure sufficient cash availability in ATMs and across bank branches, addressing the challenges of cash insufficiency that many customers have faced.