Ecobank Slashes Monthly International Spending Limit to $20

By Adedapo Adesanya

Ecobank Nigeria has further reviewed its monthly international spending limit downward to $20 per month for point of sales (PoS) and web transactions on its Naira debit card.

In an enquiry, the bank responded that “Kindly be informed that the monthly POS/Web transaction for Naira debit card usage abroad has been further review downward to $20 monthly. We sincerely regret all inconveniences this might have caused.”

The downward review of the international spending limit affects the average Nigerian who want to make purchases or foreign-based Nigerians who want to make transactions with their cards.

It also confirms that banks are experiencing forex illiquidity, meaning they won’t be able to meet their dollar commitments.

Last month, tier-one banks like First Bank, UBA, GT Bank among others made slashes on their international spending limits to $100 per month when faced with current market realities.

With this move by Ecobank, it means that if things do not improve soon enough, other banks might follow suit, making things harder for Nigerians, who want to make payments for offshore transactions.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is already planning to resume the sale of forex to bureaux de change operators across the country. This has strengthened the local currency against the greenback since Friday.

The apex bank has, however, given a caveat that the BDCs must not exchange the naira at more than N386/$1 to end-users.

The CBN said its decision to resume FX sales to BDCs is to enhance accessibility to forex particularly to travellers since international travel will commence this month.

The CBN also said deposit money banks shall continue to sell forex for travel-related invisible transactions to customers and non-customers over the counter upon presentation of relevant travel documents, passport, air ticket and visa.

Since this directive last Thursday, the Naira has appreciated to around N460/$1 from the earlier N480/$1 and it is believed that it could trade at N400/$1 in the coming days.