A recent email sent by Standard Chartered Bank
Nigeria to its customers has revealed the Central
Bank of Nigeria’s plan to hault all foreign (non Naira)
 transactions on Naira ATM, Debit and Credit cards
effective January 1 2016.

What this means is that, if you travel abroad and try
to use your card, it will not work. If you shop online
and the transaction is billed in any foreign currency,
it will not work. If you are in Nigeria and try to use
your card fo a foreign currency transaction, it will not
 work.


According To "Punch" In a notice to its customers, Standard Chartered
 said, “This is to notify you that from January 1,
 2016, your naira card will no longer be enabled
 for international use. This is as a result of the
 limited foreign exchange supply in the financial
 market.”

Asked how long the suspension of cards from
international transactions would be, the
 spokesperson for Standard Chartered Nigeria,
 Mrs. Dayo Adurogbo, said, “We cannot give a
 definite date. It depends on how soon it is
 available. We will do everything to meet our
 customers’ demand once it is available.”

Further findings showed that a number of other
banks had stopped customers from using their
ATM cards abroad but had yet to officially
 communicate this to them.
 This is bad news for Nigerian travellers and business
 owners who rely on this service for hotels, flight
 bookings and ordering goods.
 However, a source at CBN says it is “a necessity” as
 the fall in prices of crude oil, the main earner of
 foreign exchange for Nigeria, has made the nation’s
 forex income to reduce drastically, creating dollar
 scarcity crisis for the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The CBN has been rationing dollar to banks,
importers and other forex users as the nation’s
foreign exchange reserves continue to deplete,
hitting $29.4bn on December 7, 2015.


PUNCH