Respected Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has described as “illegal, null and void,” the latest financial policy from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fixing N20, 000 and N100,000 limits for daily and weekly withdrawals by individuals respectively.
Falana hinged his claim on the fact that the Money Laundering Act 2022, which pegged maximum cash withdrawal to N5 million was yet to be amended.
He added that the limitation of cash withdrawal of not more than N20,000 per day and N100,000 per week fixed by the CBN is illegal.
Falana’s claim was contained in his latest press statement titled: “Maximum withdrawal limit is N5m in Nigeria”.
He urged Nigerians to ignore the illegal announcement.
He went on to also requested President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the management of the CBN to withdraw the illegal guideline and stop announcing more policies that are designed to sentence poor citizens to more excruciating economic hardship.
The senior lawyer said it was embarrassing that the CBN has been making announcements without any regard to the constitution and other relevant laws on the national economy.
He said it is particularly worrisome that the Governor of the CBN has purportedly placed a limitation on cash withdrawals in Nigeria in complete defiance of the Money Laundering Act.
According to him, section 2 of the Money Laundering Act, 2022 provides as follows: “2. (1) No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding (a)N5,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual or (b) N10,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate.
“(2) A person shall not conduct two or more transactions separately with one or more financial institutions or designated non-financial businesses and professions with intent to (a) avoid the duty to report a transaction which should be reported under this Act and (b) breach the duty to disclose information under this act by any other means.”
