ATM'S POISON.

In Nigeria, the use of ATM as payment medium abroad suffered a major blow recently when the present administration under President Buhari okayed the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop the use of Nigerian ATM cards outside Nigeria from January 2016.
It was indeed a deadly blow because in recent months, with the CBN stopping access to official foreign exchange for some imported goods, it had become a major payment medium for many traders. That was in addition to being ready and convenient medium for upkeep of Nigerian students abroad and Nigerian tourists.
Now, Nigerian ATM's poison is bound to be sweet meat for international money transfer operators (IMTOs) in Nigeria.
This is because for most of the affected persons, particularly Nigerian students abroad and tourists, the best option from January 1 2016 will be international money transfer.
Under guidelines for IMTO services approved by the CBN, application for operators licence must be accompanied with approval of board of directors of the company in addition to copies of certificate of incorporation; memorandum and articles of association; shareholding structure; forms C02 containing returns on share allotment and C07 containing directors particulars; profiles of board members and management; the organisation chart and business plan showing business nature; features of the scheme; internal control systems and security features.
Others to be stated in the business plan are 3year financial projection; charges that will be borne by customers and diagrammatic illustration of transaction flows.
All these are in addition to N500,000 fee or any amount so fixed by the CBN from time to time.
Under the guidelines, no deposit taking bank is allowed to be an operator but they can be agents.
All international money transfer customers must be issued receipts per transaction detailing full names of the customer, type and amount of currency sent, transaction reference, nature,time and date of transaction, customer signature and commission charges
Customers shall also be formally be informed as to when the sent fund will be available to the recipient and if for any reason, the transfer could not be made the customer must be informed within 24 hours.
In the event of such failures being the operators fault, money refundable shall include all fees and charges paid but if it is the customers fault, operator shall recover only cost associated with the transaction.
The highest limit for outbound transfer is $2000 or its equivalent in relevant currencies per transaction. This, however is subject to CBN review from time to time.
The guidelines also clearly spells out requirements to do with minimum paid up capital, various information technology policies; tax clearance, minimum presence in different countries; technical partnership and information that must be openly displayed in operators offices, amongst others.

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