Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Access Bank has announced that from January 2023, customers who require foreign exchange (FX) allocation for Personal Travel Allowance/Business Travel Allowance (PTA/BTA) would only get approval twice a year, though subject to availability.
The lender disclosed this information in a notice to its customers over the weekend to inform them of changes to its forex allocation.
In the emailed message, which was obtained by Business Post, the bank further said for the rest of this year, customers can still have their PTA/BTA requests honoured as long there is FX to allocate to them.
Access Bank said the development became necessary to “meet your needs while optimising our FX allocation as we are committed to serving you excellently at all times.”
“At Access Bank, we value your relationship with us and would like to keep you informed on changes regarding our fulfilment of FX requests,” the financial institution said.
“International school fees are processed for customers who initiate their request via Access Bank. Applications will be processed and disbursed within 60 days from the date of approval, subject to FX availability, provided funds and documents are in line with requirements.
“Maintenance/upkeep requests are processed once yearly per applicant for a maximum amount of $1,500 and only for customers whose school fees were processed via Access Bank. This is subject to maintenance/upkeep not having already been disbursed previously at any time this year, and requests will be fulfilled within 60 days from the approval date, subject to FX availability.
“For the rest of the year, PTA/BTA requests will be processed just once for applicants who log their request 14 days to the travel date.
“As from January 2023, however, applicants will be entitled to only 2 fulfilled PTA/BTA requests a year. Disbursement will always be subject to FX availability,” the statement noted.
Banks have had to ration forex to customers because of a shortage in supply, allowing most of them to go to the black market, where the exchange rate is more than double.
In the official market, the Naira was exchanged with the Dollar at N445.50/$1 last Friday, and at the parallel market, it was sold at N885/$1 on Sunday.
