Zenith Bank Plc has raised the annual international-transaction ceiling on its naira-denominated debit, gold debit and platinum debit cards to $50,000, according to a customer notice reviewed by MoneyCentral.
The increase restores the cap to a level last seen more than a decade ago, before a 2015-2016 oil price collapse triggered years of dollar rationing.
Zenith itself cut the same limit to $1,000 a month in November 2015, and by the depths of the 2022 currency crisis, surviving card limits across the industry had been rationed down to as little as $20 a month.
A Sector-Wide Thaw
Nigerian banks only resumed international naira-card transactions in July 2025, initially at a fraction of the old ceiling — around $500 a month, or $4,000 a year.
The pace of easing has since accelerated: Guaranty Trust Bank raised its quarterly cap from $1,000 to $6,000 by November 2025, then to $20,000 by June 2026 and $40,000 by mid-August, becoming the first recapitalized bank to reach that ceiling.
Access Bank now permits $2,000-$3,000 a month depending on card tier.
Zenith’s cap is structured as a single annual allowance rather than a compounding quarterly figure — meaning that in raw dollar terms, GTBank’s quarterly structure could still outstrip Zenith’s headline number over a full year.
Reserves Provide Confidence for the Reset
The increases track a genuine improvement in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange position. External reserves crossed $54.08 billion on September 3 — an 18-year high, up 30.3% year-on-year and $3 billion above the CBN’s own 2026 forecast
The naira has firmed to roughly N1,315-1,326 per dollar officially, a two-year high, even as the parallel market continues to price the dollar near N1,400.
The CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee has held its benchmark rate at 26.50% for two straight meetings, prioritizing exchange-rate stability ahead of its next decision on September 21-22.
For Zenith’s customers, the restored ceiling widens what a naira card can cover abroad — tuition, medical bills, subscriptions, travel — without resort to parallel-market dollars.
It also lands alongside the bank’s own recapitalization, having raised N614.65 billion to clear the CBN’s N500 billion Tier-1 threshold.
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