First Bank Of Nigeria Cardholders Record ₦1.18 Trillion In Transaction Value During Coronavirus Lockdown

First Bank of Nigeria Limited says Nigerians with its cards used them 105 million times to make payments or withdrawals worth about N1.18 trillion throughout the lockdown.

FirstBank’s Chief Executive Officer, Adesola Adeduntan, also disclosed that the bank’s 53, 000 agents across the country processed about N512 billion worth of transactions with differing values while the lockdown lasted.

He noted that the bank was “able to actively support her customers, their families and businesses through these challenging times.”

Adeduntan further noted that approximately 12.6 million withdrawals to the tune of N156 billion were carried out across FirstBank’s ATMs nationwide.

“Our customers made transfers over 106 million times with a total value of about N8.18 Trillion across our digital channels. We have also recorded over 275,000 new sign-ups to alternative channels covering our Firstmobile, USSD and First-Online platforms,” he said.

While calling on lovers of stress-free banking to get on board, the FirstBank CEO assured existing customers of the bank’s relentless efforts to ensure that banking transactions continue seamlessly, adding that COVID-19 will not slow down her activities and efforts at staying true to her brand promise to her customers.

FirstBank cards come in a wide range of categories, each fulfilling tasks which are flexible, offer comfort and stress-free banking.

The range of cards available to customers of FirstBank are categorised into three broad groups — Debit, Credit and Prepaid cards. The grouping covers outstanding cards offerings such as Naira MasterCard, Verve Card and the pioneering Visa Multi-Currency Card.

Others are Expressions MasterCard, Platinum MasterCard, Visa Infinite Credit Card, Visa Gold Credit Card, Naira Credit Cards (Visa Classic and Platinum), Visa Prepaid Card and Verve Prepaid Card.

FirstBank’s Naira MasterCard and Verve Card are secured by Chip and PIN technology with local POS/Web limit increase available upon request. The Naira denominated MasterCard comes with various benefits such as online purchases, bills payments and cash withdrawals at ATMs world-wide. The various transaction limit(s) on Naira MasterCard issued by the bank are N150,000 for ATM transactions, N2,500,000 for POS and N1,000,000 for web transactions.

The FirstBank Verve Debit Card works with Chip and PIN technology to secure transactions. It allows the cardholder to conveniently pay for goods and services and is accepted by all ATMs, POS, Web, Mobile, Kiosk, and bank branch connected to the Interswitch network in Nigeria.

It is available to all account holders and enables daily transaction limits of N150,000, and N500,000 on ATM and POS channels respectively. Customers can transact up to N1 million on the web in a single transaction.

FirstBank cards also offer the Card Protection Transactions feature, which allows the cardholder to activate or deactivate it for all types of transactions, channels and locations, through the Card-in-Control Service on the Firstmobile app.

Another card innovation service by FirstBank is the Visa Gold Card, which offers higher daily spending capacity and limit on ATM, POS and Web. With the Visa Gold Card, the customer is assured of $1,000 daily ATM withdrawal, $10,000 POS transaction and $5,000 on the web at any location around the world. It is a dollar denominated international Premium Credit Card issued in partnership with Visa International.

Moreso, it guarantees access to international emergency services such as Emergency Card Replacement and Emergency Cash Advance in situations where the card gets lost or damaged. The Visa Gold card comes handy when making airline bookings with its smooth seamless purchase options.

Also, among FirstBank’s super cards is VISA Debit Multi-Currency Card. First of its kind to be offered by any financial institution in Nigeria, the card is an enhancement to the existing Visa Debit Dual Currency card and can be linked to any or all NAIRA, USD, EURO and GBP accounts. It is an international card with Chip and PIN technology which can be used to make payment anywhere in the world and across all channels – ATMs, POS & Web.

With the Visa Debit Multi-Currency card, cardholders can make daily withdrawals to the tune of N150,000 (local) and $1,000 (international) from the ATM. However, on the web, a total of N1,000,000 is permitted locally while $6,250 is allowed on the international corridor daily. POS transaction limit is N2,500,000 (local) and $2,500 (international).

The Platinum Debit MasterCard is a premium Debit Card denominated in Naira. It is linked directly to a customer’s Naira denominated current and/or savings account. It offers a convenient alternative to the use of cash, and cheques by giving direct access to funds in cardholders’ accounts across all channels like ATM, POS, web etc.

Like other card types, its transactions are easily monitored via the FirstBank FirstMobile App or FirstBank Internet Banking service and offers 24-hour access support for all card-related complaints through First Contact. It is a card linked to a Naira denominated account, and it is valid for three years.

It is designed to suit the lifestyle of senior and management executives of multinational companies and leaders across various industries and sector of the global economy. Its daily limits include; ATM: N300,000; POS: N3million; Web: N2,000,000 as well as Cross-border TXN limit: $500 monthly.

Speaking further, Adeduntan highlighted that the contactless capability of the bank’s Visa and MasterCards support less human-to-human contact in executing transactions, in the same way that the debit cards have remained the base channel for self-onboarding to any digital channel such as USSD, Firstmobile, FirstOnline etc.

FirstBank has also initiated value added services attached to the cards including discount at merchants location such as Jumia Friday, Health Plus, among others.