CBN Caps Mobile Banking Transactions At N20,000

Nigeria’s apex bank has capped mobile banking transactions at N20,000 in the first 24 hours of activating a banking application on any new device, as part of a sweeping set of security standards designed to curb the rising tide of digital financial fraud.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued the directive in a circular dated March 12, 2025, addressed to all financial institutions and signed by Musa Jimoh, Director of the Payments System Policy Department.

The new requirements apply to commercial banks, mobile money operators — including PalmPay, Opay, Moniepoint, and Paga — and all other providers of mobile financial services.

Under the new framework, mobile financial services applications may only be active on a single device at any given time. The CBN has explicitly prohibited customers from running the same app simultaneously across multiple devices.

Switching to a new device will not be seamless: the circular states that any such migration will automatically trigger a re-activation and re-authentication process before the customer can resume transactions. “Migration to another device shall trigger automatic re-activation and authentication.”

The N20,000 transaction ceiling applies to both new and existing account holders, though with a notable distinction in how it operates for each. For new accounts, the limit governs both inflows and outflows during the 24-hour activation window. For existing account holders migrating to a new device, the restriction applies only to outflows.

In both cases, the final limit is left to the discretion of individual financial institutions — but must not exceed the N20,000 ceiling set by the regulator. “For new accounts, transaction limits (inflow and outflow) shall be imposed on a newly activated mobile financial services app in the first 24-hours of activation. The limit shall be as determined by the financial institution, subject to a maximum transaction limit of N20,000.00.”

The CBN also preserved customers’ right to voluntarily raise their transaction limits beyond the initial ceiling, up to the existing regulatory thresholds of N25 million for individuals and N250 million for corporate accounts.

However, any such upward adjustment is subject to a two-part safeguard: the financial institution must first conduct enhanced due diligence and a risk assessment, and the revised limit will only take effect once the customer has successfully completed multi-factor authentication.

Beyond the transaction limits, the circular mandates that all financial institutions deploy enterprise-grade fraud monitoring systems capable of detecting suspicious activity in real time across both incoming and outgoing transactions. The CBN framed this as central to its broader objective of strengthening fraud prevention and securing Nigeria’s fast-growing digital payments ecosystem.

The directive also introduces heightened controls around online account creation and reactivation. Prospective customers opening accounts digitally must pass a liveliness check — a biometric verification step designed to confirm that the applicant is physically present during the process, rather than using pre-recorded or manipulated imagery.

Financial institutions are further required to validate all online account openings or reactivations in real time against either the Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identification Number (NIN) databases, adding an additional layer of identity assurance.

The CBN gave financial institutions until July 1, 2026 to implement the new minimum standards. The requirements apply to all institutions currently offering instant payment services in Nigeria, a category that encompasses virtually every licensed bank and fintech operator in the country.

The regulator did not specify penalties for non-compliance in the circular, though supervisory consequences under the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 would ordinarily apply.