THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday ordered commercial banks to stop customers from using their debit and credit cards outside the country.
Following the latest development, banks are beginning to communicate the apex bank’s directive to customers through emails, noting that it is a “temporary measure”.
The directive, which takes effect from January 1, 2016, will no doubt affect access to foreign online retailers. The measure is seen as part of Federal Government’s efforts to obstruct the flow of foreign exchange out of the country following the intense pressure on the naira in the past week, crossing an all time high of over N280 to the dollar.
Already, the naira on Friday strengthened against the dollar after weeks of free fall at the parallel market, gaining N10 to exchange at N270 to a dollar.
The development, which has created huge forex debts with banks’ international financial partners, has forced many DMBs to stop their customers from using their Automatic Teller Machine cards abroad.
The apex bank spent billions of dollars propping up the currency since it fixed the exchange rate in February and tightened trading rules to curb speculation.
It is not clear how many people will be affected by the latest measure but sources confirmed that Nigerians who travel abroad regularly and use their local cards for shopping and other transactions may be affected.
Some top-end shops in London have signs in Hausa to cater for the large number of Nigerian customers. Already, Diamond Bank and Standard Chartered have emailed their customers notifying them of the ban.
Accordingly, those customers can no longer use the cards in the United Arab Emirates, China and other African countries apart from Nigeria.
Diamond Bank message reads: “Due to the current FX market realities, please be informed that your naira debit card has been restricted for usage in UAE, China and African countries.
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