Zenith Bank Announce Changes On POS, Dollar Spend, Int’l Transactions

Nigeria financial service provider, Zenith Bank has announced some changes in its services due to the new economic reality.

Following a review, the commercial bank said it has temporarily suspended the use of its Naira cards for International Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash withdrawals and POS transactions.

This is as it also cut down on web transactions account holders are allowed to perform in the digital market, Naija News reports.

In a notification sent to its account holders, Zenith Bank disclosed that Point of Sales (POS) transactions on the International Automated Teller Machine has now been stopped for economic reasons.

Zenith Bank noted that it has also cut down on the monthly spend limit for international web transactions by 80%, bringing the card limit to $20 from $100.

Naija News reports that the review by Zenith Bank echoes the assertion that there’s scarcity of foreign exchange in Nigeria, considering foreign reserves is down by 1.60% between December 2021 ( $40.52 billion) to March 2, 2022 ($39.87 billion).

Zenith Bank directed account holders who need higher international spend limit to approach its branch, and “request for a foreign currency debit or prepaid card, which are available in US Dollar, Pounds and Euro variants.”

Meanwhile, MultiChoice Nigeria and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Wednesday reached a compromise to settle pending issues on tax outside court.

Part of the agreements reached will see MultiChoice withdraw all pending lawsuits, while FIRS conducts a forensic system of the company’s accounts.

Both parties in a statement jointly signed wrote, “By the broad terms of the agreement, MultiChoice shall withdraw all pending lawsuits towards an amicable resolution of the dispute. Also, as part of the agreement, the FIRS commenced a Forensic Systems Audit of MultiChoice accounts on Tuesday, 8 March 2022 to determine the tax liability of the company.”

FIRS In July 2021 had asked MultiChoice to turn in ₦1.82 trillion as tax bills after appointing some commercial banks as agents to recover the amount, Naija News reports.

The Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami noted that the banks were appointed as agents and used to freeze accounts because MultiChoice refused to grant FIRS access to its servers for audit.