CBN revises weekly cash withdrawal limits for individuals and companies

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December 22, 2022
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5 min read
CBN building. Image credit: Businesstimes.ng
CBN building. Image credit: Businesstimes.ng

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The Central Bank of Nigeria has revised its cash withdrawal limits. 

Remember that the directive sent to banks on December 6, 2022, was supposed to take effect from January 9, 2023, with individuals withdrawing ₦‎100,000 ($135) and ₦‎500,000 ($676) per week over-the-counter, Point of Sale (PoS), or Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

However, the new weekly withdrawal limit is now ₦500,000 ($676) for individuals and ₦10 million ($22,423) for organisations.

Recall that following the CBN’s directive, Nigeria's House of Representatives requested CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele's presence to explain the impact and significance of the new cash withdrawal limit.

This new directive goes into effect on January 9, 2023.

  • The NIMC reminds Nigerians of NIN tokenisation
  • Nigeria's President commissions Eyemark
  • CheckMe Health acquires DoctorOnline
  • Twitter makes some changes to Community Notes
  • Parents can now monitor what apps their children use on Google Play

The NIMC reminds Nigerians of NIN tokenisation

nin tokenisation

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) tweeted yesterday about the tokenisation of the National Identity Number (NIN). I was like, “what’s the point of the tweet?” 😂 

But my editor reminded me that this was a PSA, so let's go with that. 😑

In December 2021, the Federal Government announced that it would introduce digital tokens to replace the NIN slip to protect users' personal information and reduce instances of illegal retrieval, usage, transfer, and storage.

It also stated that the tokens would be implemented on January 1, 2022, but that wasn’t possible due to a “technical hitch” with the NIMC verification portal.

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Paving the way: In November 2022, the NIN verification protocol was officially discontinued by the NIMC, effectively cancelling all third-party verification vendors connected to the system.

It has now been replaced by a tokenised version known as the Virtual NIN Verification (vNIN) via APIs.

Nigerians can generate their vNIN by using the USSD command — *346*3*Your NIN *Agent code# — or the MWS NIMC mobile app, where they must also enter their agent code in the "generate vNIN" tab. 

After completion, the customer will receive an SMS with a vNIN token. 

According to NIMC, NIN tokenisation safeguards an individual's data privacy by using an encrypted, coded representation of the NIN rather than the actual NIN in day-to-day transactions.

User IDs, QR codes, and even verification log details on the MWS Mobile ID app are all examples of NIN tokenisation because they all conceal the user's NIN.

Nigeria's President commissions Eyemark

eyemark

Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, has commissioned the National Monitoring and Evaluation platform, Eyemark, to encourage citizen participation in governance.

According to him, the federal government could no longer rely on multiple Monitoring and Evaluation teams to oversee most infrastructure projects across the country.

Eyemark will make “the status of projects, the total amount appropriated and dispensed so far available in the public space.”

Cautioning against relying on the general public, he said Eyemark has been outfitted with spatial technology to track images and determine their origins.

“If a user is in Kaduna, we can determine the authenticity of the reviews. And we can know if the image was uploaded from the location the user claimed it was sent from,” he explained.

CheckMe Health acquires DoctorOnline

CheckME DoctorOnline

Egyptian healthtech platform, CheckMe Health, has acquired DoctorOnline, a virtual medical consultations platform, to strengthen the country's healthtech sector.

According to Exists.me, a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory firm which oversaw the deal, CheckMe is now valued at $20 million.

Founded in 2020, CheckMe is a marketplace that provides on-demand medical lab services through multiple lab partners.

DoctorOnline, founded by Mahmoud Abdelhakim and Essam Maged, is a doctor appointment booking app that offers several medical services via video calls.

According to Nesma El Talawy, CheckMe’s CEO, “This acquisition falls in line with our expansion strategy in the region and line with the expansion of our service offering.” 

CheckMe claims the acquisition will help it provide its patients with better diagnostics and primary care physicians. 

The goal is to make the patient's healthcare journey better by providing on-demand diagnostics and telemedicine by qualified experts and making patient navigators and primary care physicians' communications available.

Twitter makes some changes to Community Notes

twitter office

Twitter has announced that its Community Notes feature now requires all contributors to rate a sufficient number of notes before writing notes themselves.

Formerly Birdwatch, Community Notes is Twitter's community-driven content moderation programme.

It allows users to add context to tweets to maintain content quality and reduce misinformation.

Rating notes on the platform increase a user's "Rating Impact," a ranking system that reflects how frequently a contributor's ratings have assisted notes in being identified as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" by the Twitter community. 

When a contributor achieves a Rating Impact of at least five, the ability to write Community Notes will be unlocked. 

To increase your Rating Impact, look for notes needing ratings in the "Needs your help" section of Community Notes.

To become a Community Notes contributor, you must meet the eligibility criteria outlined in Twitter's FAQ

Children can now send purchase requests on Google Play

google play store

Google is launching a feature allowing children to send a purchase request to the Play Store's family manager account for approval when no payment method exists.

When the family has not set up a payment method, children can request approval for both paid apps and in-app purchases.

When the family manager receives this request via notification — or in their request queue — they can use their payment method, including Google Play gift cards, to approve the request and purchase. 

The manager can view these requests in the pending and history tabs. 

It’s best for parents who want complete control over their children's purchases and family spending. 

You can see all the apps and in-app purchases connected to your child's account and decline those you believe are harmful or unnecessary.

Currently, Google provides tools for parents and guardians to limit their children's purchases on the Play Store using the family payment method.

What I’m reading and watching

Opportunities

  • Applications for the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health Programme 2023 are now open. To know more about the programme, click here. Apply here.
  • Applications are open for the Amazon Web Service Healthcare Accelerator 2023. Apply here.
  • Applications are open for the Fuelarts x Tezos Accelerator 2023, an accelerator programme for Art+Tech startups. Apply here

Have an excellent Thursday.

Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa.

She's autistic and interested in mental health and how technology can help Africans with mental disorders. Find her on Twitter @latoria_ria.
She's autistic and interested in mental health and how technology can help Africans with mental disorders. Find her on Twitter @latoria_ria.
She's autistic and interested in mental health and how technology can help Africans with mental disorders. Find her on Twitter @latoria_ria.

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