Buoyed by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows access to information held by public authorities within a specified number of days, a group, United By Common Interest has given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) a seven-day ultimatum to release records and documents relating to the reintroduction of charges on ATM withdrawals in Nigeria.
The coalition, which comprises: Enough is Enough Nigeria, the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), as well as other interested persons, gave a 13-point demand to the CBN, demanding the apex bank to provide documentation on how it arrived at the directive on the new charges.
The coalition, in the letter dated September 12, 2014 and signed by the Chief Executive of the PPDC, Seember Nyagher, said “We write to request for documentation that would enable us properly access how this decision to reintroduce charges on ATM withdrawals was arrived at.”
The information sought by the group in the letter addressed to the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, include: the number and location of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) deployed by individual banks in each state across Nigeria, records showing the daily transaction down time on ATM in each states in the last six months, record of unfulfilled ATM requests by individual banks in Nigeria, and records indicating how much each bank in Nigeria paid to other banks for remote-on-us transactions in the last two years.
Their other demands are: the number of complaints about ATM services/transactions disaggregated by banks, the record of stakeholder consultation meetings that led to the reintroduction of the ATM charge for remote-on-us transaction, a list of attendees at the stakeholders meeting, the attendees representing each interest group, certified true copy of the minutes of the stakeholders meetings, certified true copy of resolutions reached at the stakeholders consultations, as well as the certified true copy of minutes of the CBN board at which the decisions to reintroduce ATM charges was finally adopted.
CBN’s reintroduction of the ATM charge, which took effect on September 1, 2014, requires ATM card users to pay N65 per transaction after the first three transactions of the month. The apex bank argued that the action was intended to ensure continued functioning of ATMs in the country, as there was no way a bank could recover its costs and improve on profitability if the ATM charge was removed.
Many Nigerians have, notwithstanding this explanation, condemned the policy