CBN introduces N50 stamp duty for current account deposits

Posted by Felix Okoli on Sunday January 31, 2016 at 22:9:33:

According to a notification I received from my bank, the Central bank of Nigeria has ordered all banks in to start charging a fixed charge of N50 for deposits made into current accounts in Nigeria as long as the deposit equals N1000 and above. The directive from the CBN was said to be made in compliance with the provisions of the Stamp Duty Act 2004 and the Federal Government of Nigeria Financial Regulation of 2009.

What this basically means is that current accounts would automatically be debited with a fixed charge of N50 for every deposit received into it as long as it was not made by the account holder. This means all inflows for eligible transactions made into the current account will be charged a flat rate of N50 if it is at least N1000. It doesn't mean that the account will be charged N50 for every N1000 but a single N50 charge for at a deposit of N1000 and above.

If you ask me, I have to say that it's not a bad idea given that the government is trying to generate money from bank transactions. It would have been considered bad if it was a variable charge such as 1% or 5%. So, even if a person recieved N1m into his current account, he would still be charged just N50 as stamp duty charges because of this recent CBN directive to banks.

In terms of deposits into current account that will be charges, it's not just cash deposits but also cheques as well as online transfers made by other people into the account. However, deposits made by the account owner would be free of the N50 charge. Savings accounts and account withdrawals are also exempted from this charge.