Dollar scarcity: Banks cut customers’ card spending abroad

Nigerian banks are fast running out of dollars to continue settling their foreign counterpart banks who undertake payments for transactions done overseas by Nigerian naira debit and credit cardholders.

As a result of the development, some banks have imposed daily limits on the amount of money (in dollars) naira debit and credit cardholders can spend overseas via Point of Sale terminals and online transactions.

An official of a tier-1 bank said, “We (banks) are having challenges in sourcing for dollars to maintain and settle international card transactions abroad. In other to save ourselves, we needed to impose daily limits on the amount naira debit and credit cardholders spend overseas. It is helping us to reduce the amount we pay to our foreign banks. A report by Punch.