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Customers of Guarantee Trust Bank, GTB Plc were notified this Wednesday of the new limit on its debit MasterCard.
The notice reads: “Dear customer, the monthly spending limit on your GTB Naira Mastercard is now $100 for international transactions.” However, the limit apparently affects customers within Nigeria as complaints trending on Twitter indicate.
The new limit policy is not new to debit card users in Nigeria, like those who bank with Fidelity and Eco banks. Uniformly across all banks, the spending limit for international transactions on debit cards is stipulated at $500 since March 2020.
Stanbic IBTC Bank Ltd and Zenith Bank Plc notified customers at the time about a limit on withdrawal and expenditure on debit cards used abroad. The limit took off July 20 for Stanbic IBTC Bank.
Limiting debit card transactions is backed by a common financial notion. It is mostly due to the need to limit foreign currency settlement but also to preserve dollars from more shortage.
The CBN has taken more steps than one to conserve its dollar reserves including depreciating the naira further this week. The decision appears to have caused an FX tension and put traders in confusion.
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