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Nigeria's New Bank Charges Just Took Effect. Here Is What Your Shop Pays Now.

Editorial illustration of a Lagos provisions shop owner reading a transaction alert on her phone beside a POS terminal, customer waiting at the counter
Illustration by HotKiosk

The Central Bank of Nigeria changed almost every fee on your bank account on May 1, 2026. Some charges went down. Some went up. If you run a shop, take POS payments, or move money between accounts, the maths on every sale you make has shifted.

What CBN Changed on May 1

The Central Bank of Nigeria, under Governor Olayemi Cardoso, released a revised Guide to Charges by Banks and Other Financial Institutions. It replaces the 2020 version. The new guide covers commercial banks, microfinance banks, payment service banks, and mobile money operators.

According to Daily Trust and SuperNews on May 4, the apex bank said the framework "aims to enhance flexibility, standardisation, transparency and competition in the Nigerian financial system." In plain words, CBN is trying to push more people to digital, while charging banks less for the small stuff and more for the bigger stuff.

Daily Post reported on May 4 that the regime is now in effect. Some earlier reports in late April called it a draft with a stakeholder consultation deadline of May 8, so a few details may still shift. The fee rates below are what banks are charging right now.

Card and ATM Fees

Card maintenance fees on naira debit and credit cards are now zero. Banks can no longer charge a monthly card maintenance line on your statement. Virtual cards stay free too.

The fee for a new ATM card or a replacement went up from N1,000 to N1,500. That is a 50% jump on a one-time charge.

For dollar and other foreign currency cards, banks can now charge a $10 annual maintenance fee. If you keep a domiciliary card for supplier payments abroad, watch for that line on your statement.

ATM withdrawal charges

Withdrawing from another bank's ATM costs N100 per N20,000. If the ATM is off-site, for example at a fuel station or a mall, banks can add a N500 surcharge on top.

The Bank Customers' Association of Nigeria has pushed back. Its president, Dr. Uju Ogunbunka, told reporters the consultation timeline was "too sudden" and warned that the higher card issuance fee cancels out much of the relief from scrapping maintenance.

Transfer Fees

Transfers are now tiered by amount. The CBN circular sets the fees as follows.

Transfer amountNew fee
Below N5,000Free
N5,000 to N50,000N10
Above N50,000N50 (capped)

The free band for transfers under N5,000 is the headline win for small traders who collect lots of small payments. Sending N3,000 to a supplier costs nothing.

But there is a separate cost on bigger transfers. Legit.ng explained on April 28 that the old N50 Electronic Money Transfer Levy on transfers of N10,000 and above has been replaced by a N50 stamp duty. Under the old rule the receiver paid the levy. Under the new rule the sender pays. So a N10,000 transfer can now show up as roughly N60 total once the stamp duty stacks on the bank fee.

What Your POS Sales Now Cost

This is the section every shop owner with a POS terminal should read twice. The new merchant service charge is 0.5% per transaction, capped at N10,000. POS payments remain free for the customer paying you.

What that means in practice. If a customer buys N20,000 of goods on POS, you pay N100 to your acquirer. If a customer pays N500,000 to clear a wholesale invoice, the cap kicks in and you pay N10,000, not N2,500. Above that, it stays at N10,000.

Compare that to where you were before. Many small merchants were paying 0.75% or 1% with no cap. The cap matters most for traders who handle large bulk orders. The 0.5% rate matters for everyone.

SMS Alerts and Account Maintenance

SMS alerts on transactions are still chargeable, but only on a cost-recovery basis. Banks cannot charge you a profit margin on the alert. Email transaction alerts must be free.

Current account maintenance fees are now capped at N0.5 per mille for 2026, falling to zero by 2027. If you run a business current account, that line on your monthly statement should keep shrinking.

Is This Final or Still Under Review?

This is the one honest catch. CrispNG reported on April 29 that the changes were still under review with a stakeholder consultation deadline of May 8, 2026. By May 4, Daily Post and SuperNews were reporting them as already in effect from May 1.

If you bank with one of the major commercial banks, your account is most likely already running on the new charges. If you see a charge that does not match what is in this article, raise it with your branch and check the bank's posted "Customer Tariff" sheet, which CBN requires every branch to display.

5 Things to Do This Week

  1. Pull your last 30 days of transactions and recount. Compare what you actually paid in fees to the new tariff. If your bank is overcharging, push back. The new tariff is public.
  2. Move customer payments under N5,000 to bank transfer instead of POS where you can. Free transfer beats 0.5% POS on small tickets.
  3. Push bigger receivables to a single bulk transfer. One N100,000 transfer is N50. Five N20,000 transfers is N50 as well, but the merchant charge on POS for the same volume could be N500. Math the route before you choose.
  4. Keep your alerts on, but switch to email if your bank offers it. Email alerts are free. SMS alerts still cost. For a shop owner getting 50 alerts a day, that is real money over a month.
  5. Renew your ATM card before you have to. If your card is close to expiry, factor in the N1,500 replacement fee in your cash plan. If you run more than one card on the same account, consolidate down to what you actually use.

Why This Matters

For a small shop in Lagos, Kano, Aba, or Port Harcourt, bank fees are not background noise. On a N5 million yearly POS turnover, the difference between 1% and 0.5% is N25,000. That is one month of rent in many neighbourhoods.

Tightening transfer fees and capping merchant charges is also part of a wider push to bring more cash payments into the digital rail. Mobile money outages and fibre cuts remain a real cost on shop cash flow, so cheaper fees only help if the rails actually work.

This is the second big shop-facing CBN move this season. The MSME grant window closes May 7. Combined with this fee reset, the message to small Nigerian businesses is clear. Get registered, get on digital rails, and stop paying for things that should be free.

Conclusion

The new CBN charges are a mixed bag. Card maintenance is gone. POS fees are now capped. Small transfers are free. But ATM card replacement is up, big transfers cost a stamp duty, and SMS alerts still bite. Read your statements. Check your tariff sheet at your branch. The cheapest way to send a payment in Nigeria today is not the same as it was last week.

Sources

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