The past few weeks have come with troubling news from the forex sector in Nigeria. British Multinational bank, Standard Chartered Bank, announced last week that it was shutting down international spendings on its debit naira cards. This is coming after the United Bank for Africa and Zenith bank both reduced their international spend limit to about $20 in February and March, respectively.
In an email sent to their customers, the bank stated,“Dear Client, Kindly be informed that effective August 1,2022, International Spend on our naira visa debit card will be suspended.
“International spend limit on our bank credit card however remains $1000 and foreign currency debit card limits remain unchanged.
Thank you for banking with us. As always we remain committed to providing you best-in-class financial solutions.”
It is pertinent to note that Standard Chartered bank is one of the major banks with significant forex inflow. These restrictions and reductions are due to the forex scarcity plaguing the country.
This is because the Central Bank of Nigeria has significantly reduced how much forex is made available to commercial banks.
With the increasing scarcity of forex, it is safe to assume that most banks might follow suit sooner than later.
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