Nigerian banks halt services of Naira debit cards abroad

Some Nigerian banks have stopped the use of the naira debit card abroad due to a recent directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria directing all banks to adopt the interbank foreign exchange rate as charging rate for customers carrying out foreign exchange denominated transactions. 

CBN gave the directive at a bankers committee meeting held in lagos last week where the banks were directed to add just N5 profit margin to all transactions in foreign exchange transactions carried out with the naira card.

Top bank officials claim that the banks will run at a loss if they adopt the official rate of N300 due to the fact that they source for pounds at N400. Rather than run into trouble, they terminated the card service abroad completely.

The affected bank cards so far are that of Guaranty Trust bank, Sterling bank, Stanbic IBTC bank and Standard Chartered bank. 

CBN gave the directive in a bid to bring down the exchange rate and reduce demand for forex.