Ben Murray-Bruce’s reacts to CBN’s ban of ATM use abroad

Senator (PDP) Ben Murray-Bruce has urged the Federal government in a series of tweets using the hashtag #PunishpoliticiansnotNigerians to have a rethink of the ban of Naira debit cards overseas, pointing out some of the dangers of the policy to Nigerians.

''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? With BVN, the CBN has the account details of all elected and appointed politicians in Nigeria. Dont punish Nigerians for our wrongs! A lot of the Small and Medium scale enterprises that employ the majority of Nigerians, depend on their ATM cards to do business abroad. What do Nigerians in foreign hospitals for life threatening illness do if they cant access funds via ATM? What do Nigerian students schooling abroad and who depend on their parents to fund them via Naira ATM do? How do bloggers pay for hosting if ATMs wont work on foreign sites? Is this SocialMediaBill via backdoor? What do thousands of young Nigerians who promote their businesses to the world via Facebook/Twitter Ads do?'' he said on Saturday.

He added Sunday morning, ''Per @Bloomberg, shoprite's 7 Nigerian shops sold more champagne than ALL stores in South Africa! Champagne is what we should ban, not ATMs.''

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday ordered commercial banks to stop customers from using their debit and credit cards outside the country.