Banks Halt Cash Disbursement Of Forex For PTA/BTA

Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in the country are set to stop further cash disbursements of foreign exchange for personal travel allowance and business travel allowance (PTA/BTA) as a means of stabilising the value of the Naira.

Access Bank and First Bank of Nigeria have said they will stop disbursing foreign exchange in cash as disbursement for PTA, BTA and other foreign exchange purchases.

These will now only be disbursed via a dollar travel card.

The banks made this known in emailed notes to their customers, although some others have commenced disbursements through travel cards only in an effort to reduce the demand for cash and check customers who capitalise on the arbitrage.

FirstBank in a statement to its customers stated, “The full Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) of $4,000 and $5,000 respectively will now be disbursed into your FirstBank Travel Card. All applications will be in line with regulatory requirements. Kindly ensure that all PTA/BTA applications along with the approved Form A are submitted at the branch exactly 14 days before your proposed travel date. Sales is limited to two quarters a year.”

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For school fees it noted that a minimum of 30 days is required for processing, after the submission of documents along with the approved Form A at the branch, subject to a maximum of $15,000 per semester and limited to two semesters per session.

For students’ upkeep, it stated, “Application for upkeep requires a minimum of 30 days for processing subject to a maximum of $3,000 (or its equivalent in other currencies) per semester, limited to 2 semesters per session. Evidence of payment of school fees for the current session, if school fee was not paid through FirstBank, will also be required.”

Access Bank on its part stated that, “We would like to once again inform you that we disburse authorised personal and business travel allowance FX requests through our Access Travel Debit Card. The Access Travel Debit Card has been created to enable you to transact seamlessly when you travel abroad.”

It added that, with this process, “customers can get instant issuance for PTA/BTA requests, easy access to international transactions via online, POS, and ATM and that the card is valid for three years and is usable for current and future PTA/BTA requests during its validity.”