The Central Bank of Nigeria’s December 2025 CBNUPDATE compiled a package of new circulars and exposure drafts tightening cash usage, payments resilience, consumer marketing controls, and fraud prevention, alongside enforcement actions in the foreign-exchange and mortgage banking sub-sectors. The publication also included the Central Bank of Nigeria’s November 2025 Purchasing Managers’ Index reading of 56.4 and referenced National Bureau of Statistics data showing headline inflation at 14.45 percent year on year in November. From 1 January 2026, the revised cash framework removes limits and excess-fee charges on cash deposits but introduces tighter aggregate cash withdrawal limits of NGN 500,000 per week for individuals and NGN 5 million per week for corporates, with excess-cash charges of 3 percent and 5 percent respectively on withdrawals above the cap. ATM withdrawals are capped at NGN 100,000 per day and count towards the weekly limit, while the over-the-counter cashing limit for third-party cheques remains NGN 100,000 and also counts towards the weekly tally; some government revenue accounts and microfinance and primary mortgage bank accounts are exempt, while exemptions for embassies, diplomatic missions and donor agencies are removed. Separately, acquirers, processors and payment terminal service providers must implement active dual connectivity for Point-of-Sale terminals to both the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System and Unified Payment Services Limited within one month, including redundancy and failover testing and 24-hour incident reporting, with systems required to be configured, tested and fully operational by mid-January 2026. On fraud and conduct, exposure drafts propose new rules for Authorised Push Payment fraud, including 24-hour reporting channels, 24-hour acknowledgement, a 14-working-day investigation timeline, and refunds within 48 hours of resolution, with reimbursement generally split 50/50 between sending and receiving banks unless negligence is identified. A separate draft on dishonoured cheques would require one-hour reporting of confirmed dud cheques to the Credit Risk Management System and at least two licensed credit bureaus, and would trigger five-year blacklisting after three dud cheques. The Central Bank of Nigeria also directed institutions to withdraw non-compliant advertisements immediately and submit, within 30 days of the circular, a joint compliance attestation signed by the Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer and compliance executives, with follow-up reviews and sanctions for breaches from January 2026. In foreign exchange, the Bank granted final licences to 82 Bureaux De Change effective 27 November 2025 under its tiered regime, and it revoked the operating licences of Aso Savings and Loans Plc and Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc for persistent regulatory breaches and failure to meet key prudential requirements.

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