Zenith Bank suspends use of Naira cards for International Transactions

Zenith Bank Plc has joined the list of banks that have suspended the use of Naira cards for any form of international transactions.

In a notice sent to its customers today, the bank stated that customers will be unable to use their “Zenith Naira cards for international automated teller machines (ATMs) cash withdrawals, POS transactions and web transactions with effect from January 9, 2023.”

It advised those having any international spend requirements to visit any of Zenith bank’s branches and “request for a foreign currency debit or prepaid card which are available in US Dollar, Pounds and Euro variants”

As the economy bites harder and the CBN struggles to find a solution, foreign exchange is becoming more and more rarer to get. The Central Bank has since stopped selling forex to Bureau De Change Operators and has equally asked commercial banks to source their foreign exchange needs from the open market as it tends to stop providing forex to them this year.

The implication is more pressure on the Naira, especially at the parallel market rate, as more and more citizens source their forex needs from there. Promises from the CBN to gradually narrow the gap between the official and parallel rates has more or less become a day dream as the gap keeps widening and policy measures has so far had no effect on the market rates.