The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been told to limit across-the-counter withdrawals to N10,000, following a major drop in customers’ deposit.
This call was made by Bankers Committee following the industry recording a decline of about N1.03tn in total deposit.
Sources said the measure being contemplated would drastically reduce the number of customers that would need to physically visit banking halls for transactions.
The DMBs, sources said, wanted to achieve two objectives through this strategy, if approved by the CBN.
The objectives include greater use of electronic banking and smaller workforce – as a means of cutting cost of operations.
A ‘State of the Economy’ document of the apex bank presented to the Bankers’ Committee in Abuja, last Thursday, showed that unaudited Profit Before Tax of banks for the period ended April 2016 indicated a decrease from N222 billion in April last year to N198 billion, representing a 10.8 per cent or N24 billion decrease.
“The decline was driven largely by a decrease in both interest and non-interests income which decline by 6 per cent or N50 billion and 54 per cent of N259 billion, respectively,” the document read.
Also, a top bank official quoted in the report said the drop in deposits was due to the withdrawal of government funds through the implementation of the TSA.
“The competition for deposit mobilisation is very high now in the banking sector because since the government withdrew its funds through the TSA last year, a lot of banks were seriously affected.
“So, it has been challenging now for bank workers to mobilise deposits from customers as we used to do because of the economic situation.
“A lot of people are struggling to survive and even many of those that we meet when we go out to canvass for deposits will tell you that they are in need of money.”