The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has dragged the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to court over failure to reverse the hike in Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transaction fees.
The Nigeria’s apex bank had recently announced that ATM withdrawals made at a machine owned by a bank outside its branch premises will now attract a charge of N100 per N20,000 withdrawn, while withdrawals made at shopping centres, airports or standalone cash points, will incur a N100 fee plus a surcharge of up to N500 per N20,000 withdrawal.
SERAP in a suit filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, is asking the court for a declaration that the decision by the CBN to increase ATM transaction fees is arbitrary, unreasonable and contrary to the provisions of sections 1(c) and (d), 104, 105 and 127(1) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, which is binding on the CBN.
SERAP in the suit filed by its counsels, Kolawole Oluwadare and Andrew Nwankwo, is also seeking an order of interim injunction restraining the CBN or any other persons acting on its directive from enforcing and giving effect to the decision, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for an order of interlocutory injunction filed in the suit.
The human rights group argued that the increase in ATM transaction fees ought to have been shouldered by wealthy banks and their shareholders, not the general public.
It noted that the apex bank policies should not be directed at poor Nigerians and in favour of banks that continue to declare trillions of naira in profits mostly at the expense of their customers.
SERAP observed that imposing exorbitant ATM transaction fees on socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians at a time several Nigerian banks are declaring trillions of naira in profits yearly is manifestly unfair, unreasonable and unjust.
The human rights group added that section 1(c)(d) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018 provides that the objectives of the Act are to ‘protect and promote the interests and welfare of consumers’ and ‘prohibit restrictive or unfair business practices’ such as the exorbitant and unreasonable increase in ATM transaction fees by the CBN.
