Nigerian businesses that deal with international transactions are crying out for the policy made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the dollar spending limit of $20 per month on Naira virtual cards.
Newsflash Nigeria understands that for the past three months, Nigerians would be unable to use their Naira debit cards to make any transactions of more than $20 in a month.
Due to the restrictions on dollar spending in Nigeria, business operations hard to pay for various utilities online such as paying for domain purchases or renewal of existing domains. It’s also hard to buy a gadget from an international website due to the restrictions.
Business operations that do not have a domiciliary account have been consumed with the policy and they cannot make any importation or buy with a local currency card.
Recall that Nigeria’s commercial banks declared reduced limits on international transactions using naira debit cards to $20 per month. This comes as a longstanding scarcity of foreign exchange continues to bite Africa’s largest economy and biggest oil exporter, Nigeria, despite the recent surge in global energy prices.
The United Bank of Africa (UBA), in February first took the decision when it notified customers of $20 as its new limit. According to the declaration, “In line with our promise to keep you updated on services, we have reviewed Naira Card limits for international transactions, and this will take effect 1st of March, 2022.”
Technology companies and Nigerians who are dealing with dollars in their business opted for alternatives, some financial companies partner with foreign companies to provide virtual dollar cards, but at the black market rate.
However, Flutterwave, one of the companies, announced the suspension of its virtual card service, Barter card, due to what it described as “an update from our card partner, which will cause the card service to be unavailable for an extended period of time.”
“There is currently no timeframe for resolution, however, we would be sure to send out communications once this becomes available,” said by the company. This has thrown many Nigerians who rely on this channel for their dollar transactions on edge
Also, Chipper Cash, its alternative, is not providing dollar virtual cards to its new customers.
Standard Chartered Bank which offers international banking services has also suspended international spending on its Debit card starting from August 1.