Nigeria Limits ATM Cash Withdrawals To Encourage Digital Financial Transactions (cointelegraph.com) 50
Nigeria has drastically reduced the amount of cash individuals and businesses can withdraw as it attempts to push its "cash-less Nigeria" policy and increase the use of the eNaira -- Nigeria's central bank digital currency (CBDC). CoinTelegraph reports: The Central Bank of Nigeria issued (PDF) the directive to financial businesses in a Dec. 6 circular, noting that individuals and businesses would now be limited to withdrawing $45 (20,000 Nigerian nairas) per day and $225 (100,000 nairas) per week from ATMs. Individuals and businesses will also be limited to withdrawing $225 (100,000 nairas) and $1,125 (500,000 nairas), respectively, at banks per week, with individuals hit with a 5% fee and businesses with a 10% fee for amounts above those limits. The maximum cash withdrawal via point-of-sale terminals is also capped at $45 (20,000 nairas) per day.
Announcing the changes, the director of banking supervision Haruna Mustafa noted: "Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions." The limits are cumulative limits for each withdrawal, so an individual withdrawing $45 from an ATM who then tries to withdraw cash from a bank on the same day would be hit with the 5% service fee. The previous limits on daily cash withdrawals prior to the announcement were $338 (150,000 nairas) for individuals and $1,128 (500,000 nairas) for businesses.
Announcing the changes, the director of banking supervision Haruna Mustafa noted: "Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions." The limits are cumulative limits for each withdrawal, so an individual withdrawing $45 from an ATM who then tries to withdraw cash from a bank on the same day would be hit with the 5% service fee. The previous limits on daily cash withdrawals prior to the announcement were $338 (150,000 nairas) for individuals and $1,128 (500,000 nairas) for businesses.
Who's money is it anyway? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who's money is it anyway? (Score:5, Funny)
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^ Mod this up funny
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If you thought your money was yours, well, the government has news for you.
Money still is yours. If you have cash you can spend it how you want. If you have money in the bank you can spend it how you want. Money in ATMs are not yours to do with as you please, and while most governments do not impose withdrawal limits, most banks definitely do.
Incidentally this daily withdrawal limit works out to be just shy of 10% of the average monthly gross salary in Nigeria. It's actually almost the same percentage of net salary as my daily withdrawal limit set by my bank here in Europe.
Re:Who's money is it anyway? (Score:4, Informative)
Money in ATMs are not yours to do with as you please,
Except this isn't just ATM withdrawls. TFA says bank withdrawls. As in, walk into your bank and make a cash withdrawl.
Re: Who's money is it anyway? (Score:2)
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Nigeria is a very corrupt country, and cash facilitates corruption.
A cop at a roadblock doesn't want e-money because there's a transaction trail.
Get rid of the cash, and you can get rid of a lot of the corruption.
When India moved their welfare system to e-money, "shrinkage" went from 20% to 0%.
India also legalized paying a bribe. Only receiving a bribe is a crime, and there is a reward for reporting it. So Indians started recording the bribe payments with hidden cameras. Any Indian can report bribery at ip [ipaidabribe.com]
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And you're not prevented from spending it. Still your money. Just swipe your card.
Is the government tracking you? Good. Countries which go out of their way to use cash are countries that go out of their way to dodge taxes and quickly get turned into corrupt shitholes.
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If you thought your money was yours, well, the government has news for you.
Money still is yours. If you have cash you can spend it how you want.
Only if you are there, in Nigeria. Only if you are dealing with someone who has electronic transfer capability. And only if you are comfortable leaving a paper-trail for your transaction. One doesn't have to be doing something illegal to not necessarily want everything one does to be trackable and traceable.
Money in ATMs are not yours to do with as you please,
Your money is your money, and yes it is to do with as you please.
and while most governments do not impose withdrawal limits, most banks definitely do.
Banks impose electronic spending restrictions in order to protect against fraud. There are generally no limits on what amount of cash
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If you thought your money was yours, well, the government has news for you.
The same is true for any fiat currencies, and have always been. You can ask people in India for some recent experience. Any paper money you hold is backed only by the faith in the country issuing it.
Don't think this will never happen to US Dollars, the US govt had already broken their promise once when they simply stopped honoring its promise to let you exchange USD for gold.
Re: Who's money is it anyway? (Score:2)
Whatâ(TM)s stopping you exchange USD for gold? Or are you wanting the government to guarantee the price you pay for it? Perhaps they should also fix the price you pay for other things too, comrade.
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Whatâ(TM)s stopping you exchange USD for gold?
Today? Nothing.
But from 1934 to 1975, it was illegal for Americans to own gold bullion or coins.
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But from 1934 to 1975, it was illegal for Americans to own gold bullion or coins.
There was a loop hole, gold coins for "collecting" was legal.
Cash is untrackable (Score:2)
Governments have both legitimate and illegitimate reasons to discourage large cash transactions.
People do have a natural right to engage in legal commerce without state monitoring.
At the same time, most really large amounts of cash really are being used for crime.
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most really large amounts of cash really are being used for crime.
I've heard this talking point before; is there good data to back this up? and how high do the #'s get before crime is the predominant factor in cash transactions?
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and how high do the #'s get before crime is the predominant factor in cash transactions?
Define "crime". The single largest crime cash facilitates in terms of cost to society is tax evasion. The #'s there are single digits.
There's a reason countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain balked at the idea of transitioning to digital transactions when mandated by the EU as part of the bailout. There's a reason Chinese taxi drivers sigh when you ask for a taxi receipt. There's a reason I received several components of my new heating system installed for "free" because I offered to pay cash. There's a rea
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Chinese taxi drivers and your dad are not costing society very much at all, tax evasion in the single digits or even triple or quadruple digits is not harming society, those amounts are barely rounding errors even if thousands of people are doing it. The cost to society is from international corporations,
Corporations don't pay taxes, that's just another cost of doing business. Which is passed along to YOU as the end purchaser of their goods/services. Raise the tax on everybody 1% and you'll have mass protests. Raise it 20% on "the evil corporation" and everybody cheers. You are being played
their executives, professional footballers (soccer players), billionaires in general, most of the people named in the panama papers, these are people dodging tax to the tune of billions and billions and really causing harm to society.
Leaving the Panama Papers aside, in general "the rich" are meticulous in paying what taxes are actually owed because they hired a small army of accountants and tax lawyers to make it so. Who in turn and in cahoots wit
No, it's trackable just fine (Score:2, Insightful)
More than one perp has been tracked down by keeping track of the numbers on the bills coming in at various branches. You don't get a direct pin-point that way, but if you can see a pattern emerging you can trace back the money to the spender. Doing that all by hand is a drag, but with OCRable serial numbers on the bills it becomes routine.
The typical reasons governments want strict control of money flows, legitimate and illegitimate both, here by "going digital", all boil down to the same reason: Control.
Define "really large" (Score:3)
How large is "really large" and why is crime assumed?
It's common to buy vehicles, machinery and other high value legal items for cash and the sight of cash is a useful psychological motivator when bargaining. I've saved considerable money using cash to bargain for many items.
It's also common to legally buy expensive firearms for cash in private transactions to improve privacy and guard against future confiscation enabled by registration. Trusting any government to protect your rights is naive, especially if
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What do you consider to be really large? Enough cash to buy a nice used car?
I like having and using a lot of cash-- for tipping and paying certain contractors and taxis primarily. Did you know taxi companies usually charge drivers a 10% fee for credit card transactions? The contractors might under report income, but a big benefit for them is ready, liquid payment.
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Happened to a friend of mine too: he received a large payment from a Maltese client; it was a legitimate transaction for documented work, but it got flagged as suspicious, and his bank account was subsequently blocked. He called the bank and they told him: “we’re sure it’s l
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People do have a natural right to engage in legal commerce without state monitoring.
I wish this were a right. But most of the world's governments monitor legal transactions to some degree or another. Transactions over a certain amount are monitored in the US, Canada, UK, and every country of the EU. And for those of us with sales tax or VAT, every retail transaction is recorded so that the tax may be collected. It's in the shop's best interest to record both the produce or service's price as well as the portion of tax paid. Not keeping books according to the government's requirements can l
what a drag (Score:5, Funny)
how's that prince going to withdraw the money I just sent him?
Government incentives Ponzi Schemes? (Score:3)
Re: Government incentives Ponzi Schemes? (Score:2)
No. This is an old fashioned scammer known as a central bank. They are OG.
Re: Government incentives Ponzi Schemes? (Score:2)
Re: Government incentives Ponzi Schemes? (Score:2)
Just great (Score:2)
Cue emails from Nigerian Princes having trouble getting cash from ATMs in 3... 2... 1... :-)
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Cue emails from Nigerian Princes having trouble getting cash from ATMs in 3... 2... 1... :-)
+1 Funny
Happens in the usa too (Score:3, Interesting)
Should have seen the Hoops I had to go through to pull out one and a half months rent plus security deposit for a New York flat.
Got questioned about what I was going to spend it on. Asked for multiple forms of ID. Made me sign my signature and make it match. Flashed my ID under multiple different lights and had different Associates come over to look at it. Got asked why my income more than tripled in the last few months. Got asked why I was in a different state.
Yeah I was working for Bloomberg making the big bucks which is the reason I left Michigan and spent a year in Manhattan. Start making fat cat money and see if you can pull your own money out of the banks.
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And no, I'm not excusing whatever bullshit you were put through.
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I had no issues taking out nearly $70k from a branch I had never used before (over two transactions). YMMV.
Get a different bank (Score:2)
Side question, why did you have to pay a security deposit in cash instead of a check? What kind of game is going on there?
I think I would just tell them I was going to take it to Vegas, which is an answer that covers the reason to take out any sum of money.
Pretty horrible to be asked about your income when you are just taking out money that you've stored in the bank. I would seek out a smaller regional bank (or if that was one, a different smaller regional bank). All of them will still probably ask you a
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That should have been a check, not cash though, right?
You mean you got asked all this for a check as well?
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What's a check? Are you talking about those things you see in the movies from the 70s?
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Are you withdrawing a large sum of cash due to concerns about the COVID Pandemic ?
Are you withdrawing a large sum of cash due to concern
An Opportunity (Score:2)
$45 (Score:2)
$45 per day is a lot. What does the median Nigerian earn in a month?
Argentina 2001 (Score:1)