The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Thursday, January 26, launched the national domestic card scheme.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking at the virtual launch of the initiative, said that the domestic card scheme would provide opportunities to integrate the informal segment of the economy, reduce shadow banking, and bring more Nigerians into the formal financial services system.
He said that while the penetration of card payments in Nigeria had grown tremendously over the years, many Nigerians were still excluded.
According to Emefiele, the challenges financial inclusion in the country are the high cost of card services as a result of foreign exchange requirements of international card schemes, as well as the inability of existing card products to address local peculiarities of the Nigerian market.
He added that transaction charges on all cards would, henceforth, be paid in naira, except for international transactions.
The CBN governor said that, “The national domestic card avails us the sovereignty of our data.
“Secondly, it comes at lower costs, and thirdly, the issue of foreign exchange.
“At this time when foreign exchange challenges persist globally, it is important that I say that we have come up with this card to ensure that all online transactions will now effective immediately begin to go on the national domestic card system.
“At some point in the next few weeks, I am sure that the CBN will come up with the cut-off.
“All domestic transactions that are going to be conducted in Nigeria will have to be through the Nigerian domestic cards,” he added.
Emefiele also said that Nigerians could continue to use the existing payment cards in the country for transactions, The Punch reports.
“Your existing cards are fine. You can continue using them but given that charges by foreign cards are in dollars, we will no longer pay dollars for the charges on those cards,” Emefiele said.
“We will only pay dollars for charges on transactions that are done outside Nigeria.
“NIBSS, CBN, and commercial banks will work together to see how to segregate those transactions to ensure that we pay fees or charges for international transactions that are conducted on both domestic cards, Visa or Master Cards, as they are known today.
“It is important for me to say so not because there’s any preference for the domestic card.
“The important thing is that we do not have foreign exchange and we will bar payment of charges for domestic transactions from the Nigerian foreign exchange market at some point in the very near future,” he added.
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