Nigeria Limits Cash Withdrawals in CBDC Push

Nigeria’s central bank is capping cash withdrawals for individuals to $224 a week

article-image

Maksym Kapliuk/Shutterstock.com

share

The Central Bank of Nigeria is attempting to drum up the use of its central bank digital currency, or CBDC, by enforcing limits on the amount of cash citizens can withdraw from their local banks.

Nigeria’s central bank asked deposit banks and financial institutions to cap over-the-counter maximum cash withdrawals for individuals to $224 a week, in a directive issued on Tuesday, 

Corporate organizations’ free withdrawals will also be limited to $1,154 per week, the bank said. Withdrawals above those limits will attract processing fees of 5% and 10% respectively. 

“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels…to conduct their banking transactions,” the bank said. Those include internet banking, mobile banking apps, debit cards and the country’s CBDC, the eNaira, among other means.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele conceded in October that his institution couldn’t account for the use of 85% of Nigeria’s cash in circulation, Bloomberg reported. That, in effect, was jeopardizing monetary policy across the cash-hungry nation of Africa’s largest economy, he said at the time.

The West African nation has also struggled to deal with individuals hoarding cash as it attempts to counter illegal activity, including theft and kidnappings.

Under the directive, a $44 per day limit would apply to those individuals seeking to withdraw from ATMs while over-the-counter third-party checks exceeding $112 would not be accepted.

In rare circumstances, where individuals or organizations require cash for “legitimate” purposes, a limit of $11,226 and $22,452 will apply respectively. 

Those will also be limited to one withdrawal per month and subject to rigorous identification and document requests including presenting a driver’s license and approval by the bank authorizing the withdrawal, among other things.

Nigeria became the first African nation to launch a retail central bank digital currency in October 2021, with a design aimed at complementing physical cash but not replacing it entirely.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Firedancer begins delegating stake to Solana validators

article-image

A vote ending Monday could introduce a new layer of security for Ethereum’s largest liquid staking protocol

article-image

Framework’s Michael Anderson explains what tokens need in order to be successful

article-image

Conferences are pop-up innovation clusters—and filters for the riff-raff

article-image

Tariff front-running may have caused an artificial bounce in economic data earlier this year

article-image

Waka Flocka Flame-linked BaseDrop is raising some eyebrows