No More Holiday Cash Hassle, CBN Cracks Down to Make Foreign Cards Work
The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued a sweeping directive to ensure that the influx of tourists and returning Nigerians during this festive season experience a friction-free financial environment when using Foreign Cards. Recognizing the historical frustrations of declined transactions and opaque pricing that have often marred the Yuletide experience for the diaspora, the apex bank’s latest circular mandates that all deposit money banks and non-bank acquirers must guarantee uninterrupted and efficient services.
This strategic move is not merely a seasonal adjustment but a fundamental upgrade to the national payment architecture, ensuring that international visitors can access local currency through Automated Teller Machines and point-of-sale terminals without the typical logistical bottlenecks that have characterized past December arrivals.
Under the new regulatory framework, financial institutions are strictly required to configure their entire infrastructure, including ATMs, physical PoS terminals, and virtual web-based platforms, to accept international cards through Nigerian acquirers. This process involves full compliance with global card association standards and the acquisition of necessary technical certifications to eliminate the technical “handshake” failures that previously led to high decline rates. To maintain the integrity of these transactions, the regulator has introduced a multi-factor authentication requirement for higher-value activities. Specifically, any withdrawal or online payment exceeding $200 per day, $500 per week, or $1,000 per month now requires an extra layer of security, balancing the need for convenience with robust protection against cross-border fraud.
Transparency serves as the cornerstone of this crackdown, with the Central Bank demanding that banks clearly communicate market-driven exchange rates to users before a transaction is finalized. These rates must be based on the prevailing official window, and all associated charges must be disclosed upfront to the cardholder. Transactions are only permitted to proceed once the user has explicitly accepted these terms, with banks required to retain evidence of this consent. Furthermore, the directive addresses the liquidity concerns of merchants by mandating that they be settled strictly in local currency, while acquirers must maintain a sufficient liquidity position to prevent payment delays. To ensure long-term stability beyond the holidays, banks have been instructed to recalibrate their fraud-monitoring systems to reduce false declines on legitimate foreign transactions while simultaneously reporting any genuinely suspicious activity to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit.
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The oversight for these reforms is rigorous, with the apex bank’s Consumer Protection Department actively inviting reports from any visitor or returnee who encounters difficulties. Compliance will be monitored in real-time, and institutions that fail to maintain high system availability or neglect to resolve consumer complaints within approved timelines will face significant sanctions. By streamlining the “last-mile” of international finance, the government is positioning the country as a more hospitable destination for global talent and capital, effectively turning the festive season into a showcase for a modern, integrated Nigerian banking sectorE. For more information, I recommend Songbux.
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