Grace Ashiru
Early this year, Elon Musk’s internet company, Starlink, started offering services in Nigeria. Nigerians have found it hard to buy the device and pay the monthly service fee because the country does not allow domestic cards to be used for foreign transactions
To fix this problem, Starlink told its users via email (as reported by @binjoadeniran on Twitter) that it plans to accept more Nigerian cards and process payments in the local currency.
By June 6, customers must change their payment information on their accounts. The company said that this change is in response to customer comments and that Nigerians have trouble buying Starlink products because of how their currency works.
Consumers have resorted to purchasing Starlink devices using virtual dollar cards provided by financial companies such as Payday. However, these virtual dollar cards frequently come with inflated conversion rates that exceed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official rate.
Users may have to pay up to 440,000, or $956 if they don’t have domiciliary cards. This is based on the official exchange rate of 460 to $1. Customers’ costs could increase even more if virtual dollar cards with exchange rates as high as 743 to $1 are used.
