Tension as credit cards from Nigeria ‘to be blocked abroad’

Nigerians may no longer be able to carry out international transactions as Egmont Group is considering expelling the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) because of governance issues.

A major consequence of the expulsion will be the blacklisting of Nigeria in international finance.

This could affect use of MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards by Nigerians.

It could also affect the international rating of Nigerian financial institutions, restricting their access to some big-ticket international transactions.

Nigeria will also no longer be able to benefit from financial intelligence shared by the other member countries, including the US and the UK.

Also to be affected is the country’s ability to recover stolen funds abroad.

All advanced countries are members of the group, which is an initiative of the American government.

TheCable reported in July 2017 that the group had suspended Nigeria, citing interference of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the workings of the NFIU.

The body had asked Nigeria to amend the law establishing the NFIU to make it autonomous.

It also accused the NFIU of failing to protect “confidential information, specifically related to the status of suspicious transaction report (STR) details and information derived from international exchanges”.

– The Cable