Analysts are backing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new drive to widen and safeguard foreign card use, saying it should lift FX reserves, thicken market liquidity, and steady the naira over the next few years. To them, the policy signals that investors are again willing to bet on Nigeria’s external accounts after a long spell of dollar shortages and tight controls.
The CBN told banks and non-bank acquirers last week to roll out multi-factor authentication for every foreign-card payment inside the country. The goal is simple: keep the transaction safe and let international visitors—or Nigerians visiting home—withdraw cash, pay bills, and move money without hitting a wall.
Rita Sike, Director of Financial Policy and Regulation at the CBN, set the thresholds: any online or cash withdrawal above US$200 a day, US$500 a week, or US$1,000 a month must clear the extra security checks. Lenders and payment firms also have to recalibrate ATMs, POS terminals, and virtual gateways so global cards work first time, every time, while staying in line with Visa, Mastercard, and other global rules.
Banks must show customers the exchange rate—taken straight from the official market—plus any fees, and get a clear “yes” before the transaction goes through. Systems have to stay online, anti-money-laundering filters must be tight, and anything that looks odd gets flagged instantly.
Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, President of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, welcomed the move, noting that switching naira debit cards back on for overseas use is already making life easier for travelers and importers.
The card directive lands on top of broader reforms that started when Cardoso took the CBN helm in October 2023. Letting the exchange rate find its level, stopping the central bank from bankrolling the budget, and returning to the Eurobond market have together pulled the dollar gap inward. Foreign investors have responded: in the first ten months of 2025, capital inflows hit US$20.98 billion—up 70% on the same stretch of 2024 and more than five times the US$3.9 billion seen in 2023.
Local banks have lifted their three-year ban on naira debit cards abroad. UBA, FirstBank, GTBank and Wema Bank have all switched international transactions back on, promising customers a smoother ride when they travel.
Ayokunle Olubunmi, who heads financial-institution ratings at Agusto & Co, says the move follows healthier FX liquidity, narrower gaps between the official and parallel rates, and fewer chances for arbitrage—evidence that the CBN’s reforms are biting.
Net FX reserves—what the central bank can actually lay hands on after short-term promises are stripped out—ended 2024 at $23.11 billion, the highest level in more than three years. They stood at just $3.99 billion twelve months earlier, after the bank pared back swaps and forward contracts and freed up hard currency to cover external payments.
Monthly FX inflows have picked up as well. Since May 2025, they have averaged $5.96 billion, up 62% month-to-month, helped by stronger oil prices and the CBN’s broader channels for attracting foreign exchange.
Nigerians living overseas send home roughly $23 billion a year; those steady remittances continue to shore up the external accounts.
Analysts at Financial Derivatives Company reckon the reforms—streamlined processing, tighter security rules and clearer disclosure—are key to keeping the external sector sturdy and growth on track.
With global headwinds still blowing, the quiet return of naira cards to the international stage marks a small but telling step toward a deeper, better-supplied FX market.
