First Bank of Nigeria has further reduced the international spending limit on its naira cards from $50 to $20 (around N10, 000) per month.

Making this disclosure in a note emailed to its customers on Thursday, First Bank disclosed that the reduced spending limit will take effect from April 1, 2022.

“Due to the current market realities on foreign exchange, we’ve reviewed cross border transaction limits for Naira master card, Naira credit card, our virtual card and Visa prepaid Naira card further to $20 monthly. This will take effect on 1 April 2022,” First Bank in the statement said.

The bank advised customers to make use of Visa Debit Multicurrency Card, Visa Prepaid (USD) Card and Visa Gold Credit Card to enjoy transaction limits up to $10,000 

It also suspended the use of naira cards for international ATM cash withdrawals.

This development comes as a long-standing foreign cash shortage continues to sting Africa’s largest economy.

The Bank had earlier in March reduced international spending to $50, at the same time Zenith bank cut its international spending limit to $20 per month.

In February, the United Bank of Africa (UBA) similarly lowered the international spending limit on its naira card from $100 to $20 a month. 

Data from the daily external reserve tracker from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that Nigeria’s foreign reserve dropped to $39.86 billion at the end of February 2022, representing a 0.44 per cent decline compared to $40.04 billion recorded as of January.

Customers could previously spend up to $100 (N50,000) on web purchases with their naira cards. However, the new development will see customers having the leverage to spend a little above N10,000 monthly.