The Central Bank of Nigeria has established new guidelines governing the setting up and management of offsite ATMs in hopes of spreading financial inclusion across the country.
Nigeria’s banks now may establish independent agreements with ATM providers to deploy more offsite ATMs, according to a circular the central bank issued Nov. 6. In addition, ATM providers may acquire and deploy off-site ATMs and brand the machines they acquire as their own.
The central bank also gave banks and ATM providers a financial incentive to deploy offsite ATMs by allowing them to charge cardholders up to 100 naira (6 U.S. cents or 4 euro cents) per transaction.
The banks and ATM providers would have to display the fees clearly and give cardholders the option to exit the transaction before completing it.
All ATMs, including those in branches, would have to be working a minimum of 95% of the time, including but not be limited to network and cash availability, according to the bank’s guidelines. Moreover, deployers must monitor their ATMs routinely or face strict sanctions, and they must place cameras on the machines and use other security measures to deter and prevent fraud.
In terms of acceptance, all ATMs in Nigeria would have to accept at the minimum cards carrying the Visa, MasterCard and Verve brands, and they may not discriminate the services an ATM offers based on the card’s brand, the central bank said.
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