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In order to conserve foreign currency and to bypass settlements from debit card use abroad, banks in Nigeria are placing a limit on transaction and withdrawals. Uniformly across all banks in Nigeria, the spending limit for international transactions on debit cards was stipulated at $500 since March 2020.
Recently, banks customers recieved notifications with specifations from their banks regarding the limits.
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Card Limit for Nigerian Banks
Stanbic IBTC Bank began on July 20 to limit offshore transaction for its debit cards. Its cardholders can only make expenses of $500 monthly and cash withdrawals up to only $100.
Zenith Bank suspended cash withdrawals abroad and cut the monthly spendings abroad to $200.
Ecobank and Fidelity Bank also cut down withdrawal limits but transaction limits abroad remain at $500.
Guarantee Trust Bank, GTB Mastercard was limited to $100 for international transactions.
Transaction made abroad are remitted and settled by the local banks, but Nigeria is also facing Dollar challenges due to a drop in oil prices. Debit cards limits often occur with orders from CBN especially in times of forex scarcity. The last one as in 2016. The central bank who is making efforts to conserve its foreign currencies did not say whether it was behind this.
The CBN recently announced the resumption of FOREX sales to Bureau de Change operators. It says it will release $10, 000 weekly and this appears to have given the naira a quick boost of N12, a 9.7% at the parallel market.
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