It’s ₦500. In isolation, that sounds like nothing. But when a central bank quietly proposes to raise the cost of one of the most basic tools of financial participation in a country of 220 million people — many of whom are already stretched thin — the number stops being small very quickly.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has proposed raising the fee for ATM debit card issuance and replacement from ₦1,000 to ₦1,500, a 50% increase, as part of its 2026 Guide to Charges exposure draft. If adopted, the new fee structure takes effect from May 1, 2026 — less than a week away — replacing a framework that has been in place since 2020.
The document, signed by Rita I. Sike, Director of the CBN’s Financial Policy and Regulation Department, frames the revision as part of a broader effort to modernise Nigeria’s financial ecosystem, encourage innovation, and expand digital transactions — particularly in the low-value payment segment where financial inclusion efforts are most concentrated. It’s a reasonable-sounding objective. The tension is in the execution.
Raising the cost of an ATM card — the entry point to formal banking for millions of Nigerians — while simultaneously claiming to advance financial inclusion is a contradiction the CBN’s draft does not fully resolve. For a customer in a low-income bracket who replaces their card once or twice a year due to wear, theft, or system-related reissuance, that increase isn’t abstract. It’s a real cost layered onto a cost of living that has already been climbing steeply.
The draft introduces other structural changes worth noting. Standard debit and credit cards will carry the fixed ₦1,500 fee, while premium cards will be subject to negotiable pricing — a two-tier framework that didn’t exist under the 2020 guidelines. Banks will be required to clearly disclose when charges are negotiable and ensure fee agreements are reached transparently, with all charges capped within defined regulatory limits.
There’s also a consumer protection provision that deserves attention: the CBN has clarified that customers cannot be charged beyond their available balance. Instead, pending charges will be deferred until sufficient funds exist — and crucially, those deferred fees will not attract interest. For low-balance account holders, that’s a meaningful safeguard, even if it arrives in the same document that raises their card costs.
The proposed framework applies across the full breadth of CBN-regulated institutions — commercial banks, merchant banks, microfinance institutions, mobile money operators, and mortgage banks. Nothing in the formal financial system is exempt.
The CBN has opened the draft for public feedback until May 8, 2026 — a three-day window from the time of publication that is, to put it charitably, not generous. Stakeholders who want to shape the final outcome have very little runway to do so.
What happens next depends on whether that feedback mechanism is substantive or ceremonial. Nigeria’s banking customers have rarely had meaningful influence over the fee structures that govern their accounts. The exposure draft process exists — but whether it bends to public input or proceeds as written is a question the May 8 deadline will answer quickly.
In the meantime, the debate it has already ignited is the real signal. In a country where the cost of simply having a bank account is already a barrier for many, any upward revision to basic banking fees lands in a context the CBN’s policy language doesn’t fully acknowledge.
