One particular news that has been trending lately is the new directive that has been given to CBN and banks in general, which is for them to begin to tax all mobile transfers. And not just any tax, they’re to deduct 0.5% of the amount transferred. That’s a lot of money, I must say.
That is to say; transfer of N1000 will attract an extra fee of N50. A transfer of a million naira will attract a fee of N5000. It’s crazy. Because when we think about it, we’ve not seen the point of this particular tax. They say that it’s for cybersecurity, but it’s just way too expensive to be for the good of the common man.
And if you think that this is the only tax we pay when it comes to banks, you’d be wrong. There are a couple of other charges that we pay all because we embraced mobile banking. There is ATM maintenance fee, there is the usual bank charge that comes with each transaction you make online. Those charge that shoot your money up from the intended N10,000 you were willing to send to N10,050 that the bank wants you to send. The N50 goes to them by the way.
For me, I think the most annoying of them is the ATM fee, or the maintenance fee. Those are the real killers because no matter how safe you think your money is, they can ruin it for you. Deducting N50 and N10 from time to time, until whatever amount you thought you had has reduced to something that just makes no sense.
There is nothing I hate more than thinking I have N10,000 in my bank account, but coming online to see N9,995 simply because the bank had decided to deduct N5, thereby making me unable to use the money for what I initially wanted. And since N5 can’t be transferred because it’s too small, I’d have to ask someone to loan me N500, or even N1000. If I should begin telling you all about how these annoying charges have ruined plans for me, this post will be flagged for being too long.
But then, what can I do? I’m just an ordinary citizen, the government says we should jump and we have to decide how high we’re willing to jump. This is one reason keeping money in the bank keeps looking less and less lucrative for me because in one way or the other, both the banks and the government will keep looking for ways to take it from you.
I know that the banks have to make their money somehow, after all, they have to pay their staff and they have to make money, that’s the reason they’re in the business to begin with. But it gets to a time when they just do too much, and right now, they’re doing too much. Crypto would have been a great way to store assets, but they’re blocking that from all corners right now.
With banks, your money is not really yours. It’s only yours when you withdraw it and have it in your hand. But as long as it’s in the bank, they can decide to take it from you, freeze your account and deduct whatever stinking charge they want, and you can’t do anything about it.
Honestly, I don’t really know where this country is headed to. So far, dealing crypto is illegal, I’ve even gotten warnings from my bank apps to cease and desist, as if I was to begin with. Hehe… I just pray they (both the government and the banks) stop with all these charges and let us breathe. I’m still trying to push myself through school, it’s just not fair that every transfer I make would take even more money from me. It’s just annoying. Are they trying to force us to the period before mobile apps? Because nothing would stop me from stopping all transfer and going to the bank for all my transactions.
Mobile transfer is one reason the banking halls are not as crowded as they used to be years before, but if these guys are willing to see that amount of people grace their halls again, then they should keep this up. Because if there is one thing I’m certain of, it’s the fact that I’m not the only one pained by this.
I guess we’d have to see what tomorrow would bring for us.
