Zenith Bank notified its customers that it would suspend international transactions such as Automated Teller Machine (ATM) withdrawals, Point of Sale (POS) payments, and web transactions on its naira cards with effect from January 9, 2023. The notification advised customers with international transaction requirements to visit any of the bank’s branches and ask for a “foreign currency debit or prepaid card, which are available in US Dollar, Pounds and Euro variants.”
Other banks such as GTBank, Standard Chartered, amongst others also recently suspended international transactions on their naira cards.
Flutterwave and other similar fintech platforms also suspended international transactions on their virtual card services.
Nigeria is currently struggling with a Foreign Exchange (Forex) crisis, which has resulted in making financial institutions take such decisions.
