The use of Naira debit cards for foreign transactions are suspended by Zenith Bank.
According to a post by Zenith Bank, they will stop allowing foreign transactions to be made using their debit ATM card as of Monday, January 9, 2023.
This is not the first time that banks have made such decisions.
The monthly fee for the GtBank Mastercard Debit Card used to be $20, but it just went down to $10 before it was cancelled at the start of the new year.
Since a while, Zenith Bank has taken deliberate steps to ensure that they are at the top of the list by providing their customers with the highest monthly fee among banks—up to $25—to execute foreign transactions.
Dear Customer,
Please be aware that beginning on January 9th, 2023, you won’t be able to use your Zenith Bank Naira cards to make international ATM cash withdrawals, POS transactions, or web transactions.
You can request a foreign currency debit or prepaid card from any of our branches if you need to make international purchases; these cards come in US dollar, pound, and euro varieties.
What should you should know
Just to give you some background, The CBN governor declared long ago that it would stop giving dollars to banks, as he asked them to find FX proceeds in order to satisfy the dollar needs of their clients.
Although it compensates differently than the naira4dollar plan, the CBN also established the “RT 2000 scheme,” which offers N65 for every dollar transacted at the I & E importers window. The program seeks to bring in $200 billion in foreign exchange from non-oil exporters.
