What many bank customers know Automated Teller Machine (ATM) for is cash withdrawal. But there are other transactions that can be done on ATM terminals.
Such transactions are bills payment (DStv, PHCN, etc), intra and inter-bank transfers, airtime purchase, donations, embassy payments, dealer payments, utility bills, and school fees, among others.
Tunde Kuponiyi, chairman, Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH), encouraged the banking public to adopt the various alternative payment channels that all banks in the country have made available in realisation of the aims and objectives of the cash-less policy and the attainment of the Payment System Vision 20:2020.
It is pertinent to educate members of the public that the cards being issued by the banks are not only meant for ATM cash withdrawal, but are activated for a wide range of services on ATM and other alternative channels, he said.
This is coming when the public is agitated over the recent re-introduction of charges for remote-on-us transactions on ATM machines by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Transactions on ATM used to attract a fee of N100.00 prior to the removal of the fee.
Following the removal of N100 charge on ATM in 2012, the cash withdrawal on other banks ATMs by customers rose by 172.9 percent to N262 billion in 2013, from N96 billion in 2012, according to the CeBIH.
In 2012, the number of transaction done on other banks ATM did not go beyond 8.5 million count of transactions, during the peak period it was 13.4 million in September 2012, but in December when the N100 charge was removed, transaction grew astronomically, starting from January 2013, by December 2013 transaction count was grown to 24.7 million.
Immediately after the removal of the charges in December 2012, the banking industry witnessed a surge in the volume and value of ATM cash withdrawal transactions and this increase was traced to remote-on-us transactions.
For instance, industry statistics show that inter-bank cash withdrawals rose from 33.4 million transactions with a value of N91 billion in January 2013 to 66.8 million transactions with a value of N168 billion in December 2013. During this period, it was discovered that members of the public engaged in uncontrolled use of their debit cards on other bank ATMs such that customers engaged in as many as 160 transactions in a month, Kuponiyi said in Lagos.
