As dollar hits N707, banks stop PTA/BTA cash payments

Commercial banks have commenced card-based dollar disbursements and directed travellers in need of dollars for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) to get travel debit cards.

This is coming as the exchange rate between the naira and dollar at the parallel market on Wednesday hit N707/$1, representing a 0.28% depreciation compared to N705/$1 recorded at the Tuesday trading session.

The PTA/BTA policy shift, according to the Nation’s report, as announced by many banks including FirstBank and Access Bank, followed rising cases of abuse by travellers getting forex but failing to use it for trip-related purposes, only trade the funds at black markets.

It is also a part of the Bankers’ Committee policy to use digital processes to track forex transactions, stop fraudsters from abusing the system, and save scarce forex for the economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines require that a company can buy up to $5,000 BTA per quarter while an individual is entitled to $4,000 PTA per quarter.

At one of the bankers’ committee meetings in Lagos last year, Group Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Segun Agbaje, said there had been incidents of customers presenting expired passports, invalid flight tickets, or open tickets that were canceled after acquiring the foreign exchange.

While the dollar was going for N707 per dollar at the black market, the exchange rate at the official I&E window remained stable in the past week, albeit at a high rate as it closed at N436.04/$1 on Tuesday, 13th September 2022. This varies slightly when compared to N436.5/$1 recorded in the previous trading session. 

A total of $83.71 million was recorded as forex turnover on Tuesday, which is 16.1% lower than the $99.78 million that exchanged hands on Monday.