Withdrawal policy: We will not be rigid, we will review it from time to time – Emefiele

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has said that the apex bank won’t be rigid with the recently imposed cash withdrawal policy. 

CBN recently restricted the maximum cash withdrawal over-the-counter (OTC) by individuals and corporate organisations per week to N100,000 and N500,000, respectively.

Reacting to this while speaking with journalists in katsina state, he said Buhari was “very happy and said we should carry on our work, no need to fear, no need to bother about anybody.”

According to him; “We will be reviewing from time to time how this is working because I cannot say that we are going to be rigid.

“But it is not to say that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tricking (sic) some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.

“We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are making life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them.

“So, there is no need for anybody to worry, the central bank is monitoring what is happening and I can assure everyone that we are up and alive to our responsibilities and we will do what is right for Nigeria and Nigerians.

“We think, Nigeria as a big country, the biggest economy in Africa, that we need to leapfrog into the cashless economy.

“We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 percent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitisation have gone cashless.”