The Senator representing Bayelsa East and philanthropist, Mr. Ben Murray Bruce of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has urged the Federal government to have a rethink of the ban of Naira debit cards overseas. In a series of tweets with the hashtag #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians, he pointed out some of the dangers of the policy to Nigerians.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday ordered commercial banks to stop customers from using their debit and credit cards outside the country. V
#PunishPoliticiansNotNigerians
1-If we must ban ATM card use abroad, why not ban it for politically exposed people like me instead of ordinary Nigerians that depend on it?
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
2-With BVN, the CBN has the account details of all elected and appointed politicians in Nigeria. Dont punish Nigerians for our wrongs!
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
3-A lot of the Small and Medium scale enterprises that employ the majority of Nigerians, depend on their ATM cards to do business abroad.
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
4-What do Nigerians in foreign hospitals for life threatening illness do if they cant access funds via ATM? #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
5-What do Nigerian students schooling abroad and who depend on their parents to fund them via Naira ATM do? #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
6-How do bloggers pay for hosting if ATMs wont work on foreign sites? Is this SocialMediaBill via backdoor? #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015
7-What do thousands of young Nigerians who promote their businesses to the world via Facebook/Twitter Ads do? #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians
— Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 26, 2015