Official: You Can Now Make Foreign Currency Transfers

The CBN last week lifted its ban on foreign currency deposits a restriction it placed earlier in August 2015 as part of its efforts to control the demand of forex in the country. The loosening of the restriction was panacea to the obvious pain that the ban of sales of forex to BDC operators will cause. But the CBN was silent on forex withdrawals or the ability of depositors to transfer their funds out of their domiciliary accounts. This made depositors wary of the new directive and discouraged a lot of people from depositing their money.

It appears though that things may have changed as banks have now started sending emails to their customers informing them that they can now make foreign currency transfers as well. The email titled “RESUMPTION OF TRANSFER OF FCY CASH DEPOSITS FROM DOMICILARY ACCOUNTS” also revealed currency transfers will only be limited to $10,000 per day. See an excerpt of an email received from Diamond Bank;

Dear [Name redacted],
We are pleased to inform you that you can now deposit foreign currency cash and transfer internationally from your Diamond Bank Domiciliary account(s) at any of our Branches effective today, January 15, 2016.
This is in line with the recent CBN directive .
Please note that this is limited to $10,000 per day and not more than $50,000 per week for funds transfer .
For more information, please call our 24 hour contact center on 0700 300 0000, send an SMS to 30811 or an email to enquiries@diamondbank.com. To offer feedback or make a complaint, please send an email to complaints@diamondbank.com
Thank you for choosing Diamond, Your Bank.

With this email one can confirm that the CBN has therefore also lifted the ban on foreign currency transfers out of domiciliary accounts. The exchange rate depreciated to has high as N315 on Friday before gaining and closing at N305 at the end of the week.