The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has come out with a series of new rules on how to use your payment cards including Mastercard and Visa when you travel outside Nigeria.
As part of the rules, daily overseas cash withdrawal limit on your Naira denominated cards is now $300.00 or equivalent in the currency of the country where the card is used. So, if you travel with your Mastercard and Visa, the maximum you can withdraw or pay on that card is $300 in a day. This means that if you are a heavy spender when you travel, you should take along with your card, some cash as well.
Also, your annual overseas card use limit is now $50,000.00 or equivalent in the currency of the country where the card is used.
This directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is already in force from 13 April 2015 and affects only cash withdrawals outside Nigeria.
Most banks now also demand that whenever you travel outside Nigeria, you have to inform them to enable activate your card for usage outside the country. So you must furnish your bank with the following information whenever you decide to travel;
• Your bank account number
• Last four digits of your card number (Please never provide your full card number)
• Your country(ies) of visit
• The duration of your stay (Start date and End date)
Already, the CBN has also barred the use of the dollar to pay for local trasactions within Nigeria. This means no item or service in the can be priced in dollars. This makes it illegal for especially landlords of prime properties in places like Ikoyi, in Lagos, Nigeria to price their rents in dollars. Also, it is also now illegal for schools based in Nigeria to price their school fees in dollars. All items or services bought or sold in Nigeria must now be priced in Naira.
