On the 29th of December, 2022, Guaranty Trust Bank, also known as GTB or GTbank, sent a notification email to their customers that the naira will not be usable for international transactions from December 31st, 2022.
The mail was sent as, “Dear customer, we write to inform you that you will no longer be able to use your Naira Mastercard for international online and POS transactions effective 31st December 2022.”
These naira cards were said to not be supported for international online and POS(Point of Sale) transactions, according to the bank, with no reasons for the sudden decision. Customers are then advised to get dollar cards for their international transactions.
First Bank also had to suspend the usage of its naira cards for international transactions with the reason of low foreign exchange in the country.
Right before GTbank was Access bank when some predicted that other banks could follow in its step of suspending international transactions with the naira cards. With the option of dollar cards, it is without a doubt that naira cards could be useless in foreign countries.
Like a deja vu, banks have suspended international payments through naira cards in 2016. Standard Chartered Bank in a mail to its customers, put blame on the decision of limited foreign exchange supply on its stoppage of backing naira cards international transactions.
Other than banking sectors, fintechs are also imbibing the knowledge of suspension of naira cards for international transactions.
This has put a stress on Nigerians who make use of their naira cards for a lot of transactions including website domain subscription renewal.
