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COVID-19: Nigerians Lament Deduction Of “Crazy” Stamp Duties By Banks

SaharaReporters gathered that the banks in a series of debit alert messages to their customers, have started to deduct the charges.

Nigerians have condemned the deduction of stamp duties by banks as they battle the economic impacts of Coronavirus.

SaharaReporters gathered that the banks in a series of debit alert messages to their customers, have started to deduct the charges.

According to the banks, the deductions would be cumulative from February and March 2020. 

The United Bank for Africa announced that stamp duty charge would apply on all customers’ savings account from April 1, 2020, few days after donating $14m to the country’s COVID-19 fight.

The bank added that the stamp duty charge was a directive from CBN, which states that all deposits of N10,000 and above are subject to a charge of N50. 

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Also, Access Bank, in a message to its customers, said the deduction of the charges would take effect from February 1, 2020, when the Finance Act 2020 came into effect.

According to the Finance Act 2020, N50 charges would be applied on electronic funds transfers or deposits of N10,000 and above. The charges were being deducted from February, with deduction running into thousand of naira for some customers. 

Nigerians have described the stamp duty as a means of impoverishing the people. 

Expressing their anger and grievances on social media, they urged government to reverse the policy.

Miss Zipporah, a Twitter user, revealed that N6,100 was deducted from her account for stamp duty by UBA.

She stated, “I am not popular on Twitter but please retweet this. I woke up this morning to find out that @UBAGroup debited N6,100 from my account. I went to their bank and they said they remove 50 naira for every 10k transaction. I am a businesswoman.

“I have not made sales for three months and the UBA decided to debit me N6,100 in one night. How wicked and evil can UBA group be? You are very wicked.” 

Ayobami, who tweets at @Kallaxy1, cried out after N14,000 was deducted for stamp duty.

“After charging N50 on almost every transaction that I made for stamp duty, @UBAGroup still went ahead to charge N14,000 this morning. Please I need someone to enlighten me about this. Seem to me like UBA is ripping me off,” he tweeted. 

Describing the deduction as daylight robbery, @banadvince117 said, “@UBAGroup, you guys deducted about N900 (50naira x18) between March and April. You're charging N1,100 for March and Feb again...what is stamp duty? I need an explanation.” 

@OpeyemiOsundare, another UBA customer, said, “The rate my money been deducted because of stamp duty fee is too much. Kindly help me out. Almost N1,000 in a month…what nonsense.”

@Prisielebz, an Access Bank customer, said, “I don't understand the debits made by Access Bank on customers’ accounts in the name of stamp duty. What exactly is going on?”

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