Ban On Foreign Transactions with Naira ATM Cards - What next?

 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have rolled out a new policy that may definitely not go well with the bulk of Nigerians. In a mail sent by Standard Chartered Bank to its customers, it was revealed that the CBN plants to halt all foreign transactions (Non-naira transactions) on all Naira Debit and Credit cards with effect from the 1st of January, 2016. This means that you can't shop online on foreign stores like Amazon, Aliexpress, GearBest etc from 2016 with your ATM card.

This new policy brings a lot of problems for Nigerians both home and abroad from making monetary transactions. If you recall, earlier this year, the CBN had restricted daily dollar withdrawal limit to some meager amount which caused a huge outcry from Nigerians in diaspora.
According to Sunday Punch, some banks have already started stopping customers from using their cards abroad without any official communication to them.

What Does This Affect?
Here are a few things that this new policy could affect
==> No more shopping on EBay, Amazon, Aliexpress, Gearbest etc
==> If you use a foreign Domain host, you can't pay again with your MasterCard/VisaCard/etc
==> You can no longer use your ATM cards in foreign countries
==> Payment for foreign Exams, subscriptions etc no longer possible with your cards.
 ==> No more buying songs on iTunes, Tidal etc
==> Paying for Ads on Facebook, Twitter...
 and so on..
In CBN's defence, they claim it is a neccessity. This is due to the fall in price of crude oil which has made the nation's foreign exchange income to reduce drastically creating some form of Dollar scarcity for the CBN.

 
What way Forward?
Luckily, a few companies already offer items in Naira already e.g Google Play Store, BBM (Stickers and Subscriptions) etc.. The rest will have to be a no go area in 2016 for the meantime as the the CBN haven't given a definite date when the ban will be lifted. Meanwhile, if you have a flight to book, a foreign transaction to make, song to buy or a domain to pay for, i'd advice you to do so as soon as possible. Some people have been suggesting getting a Dollar debit/credit card fom your bank, but how that will work given the bureaucracy in the country remains unknown.

Every new year, we seem to always be ushered in with some strange policy in the country. With this Ban on foreign transactions with Naira ATM cards, what next?