About a year after temporarily stopped offering the service, Nigerian banks are starting to relax the prohibition on using naira cards for overseas transactions.
On Friday, Wema Bank customers were informed that they may start using their naira master cards for foreign transactions.
“It’s time to make purchases abroad and take advantage of frictionless transactions. You may now use your Naira cards for purchases abroad, including Mastercard, ALAT Mastercard, and Visa, according to a statement from Wema Bank to clients.
Yet, the bank continued to set a $500 monthly transaction cap.
“You may now make purchases abroad using your Naira cards, which include Visa, Mastercard, and ALAT Mastercard. “You may get up to $500 every month on your foreign transactions,” Wema stated.
With Nigeria’s protracted foreign currency crisis, banks started to restrict the usage of naira cards for overseas transactions.
On September 30, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, citing “current market realities on foreign currency,” banned all overseas transactions on their naira Mastercard.
As of December 31, 2022, GTBank no longer accepts naira cards for online or point-of-sale transactions.
In July 2022, Standard Chartered Bank will stop allowing foreign purchases with its naira visa debit card.
Zenith Bank Naira cards for international Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash withdrawals and Point of Sale (PoS) transactions have been temporarily stopped, Zenith Bank Plc told its clients.
Before the ruling, banks had reduced the $100 monthly card spending limit for online purchases to $20.
