Want to quickly open a domiciliary Account in Nigeria without visiting any bank branch?
Looking to open a working domiciliary Account within 5 minutes without unnecessary documentation and requirements?
In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that – open and activate a domiciliary account that you can use to receive your online earnings in Nigeria.
If you are a freelancer, digital marketer, or blogger in Nigeria, then you already know the importance of having a domiciliary account.
Instead of leaving your online earnings at the mercy of the banks and their exchange rates, it’s way better to receive your earnings in dollars via your domiciliary account.
That way, you can get the full worth of your earnings and also use your earnings as you please.
Opening a Domiciliary Account with just your Phone
For the purpose of this article, we’ll be looking at how to quickly open a Domiciliary Account Online via the Alat app.
Alat is owned by Wema bank, and they’ve made it possible to get an active domiciliary account in Nigeria just by the click of a button.
All you have to do is open a primary account with ALAT, then upgrade your account by uploading a government-issued ID card. Thereafter, you can request an instant domiciliary account.
The ALAT Domiciliary Account
The ALAT Domiciliary Account is known as the Dom Lite Account. It is a quick domiciliary account for people who receive regular inflow of foreign currency.
The Dom Lite Account is available in U.S Dollar, Euro, and Pounds. So, it doesn’t matter where your earnings are coming from and in what currency, you can open a Dom Lite Account for it.
Once you have a Tier 3 account with ALAT, you can easily generate a Dom Lite Account right from the app.
Requirements for the ‘Dom Lite’ Domiciliary Account
The Dom Lite Account requires just minimal documentation.
Once you have an active ALAT account, which is opened using your BVN, passport photo, and signature, you’ll then need to upgrade your account from a Tier 1 account to a Tier 3 account.
This is done by uploading a government-issued ID card such as International Passport, Drivers License, NIN, etc.
The upgrade to a Tier 3 account can take up to 3 days, but once your account is upgraded, you can then generate your ‘Dom Lite’ Domiciliary Account by the click of a button.
The Dom Lite Account does not require any references or minimum opening and operating balances.
You can open a ‘Dom Lite’ domiciliary account from the ALAT app, even if you have a zero balance.
Features of the ‘Dom Lite’ Domiciliary Account
The ‘Dom Lite’ domiciliary account functions like a mini domiciliary account. It is a good place to start if you earn less than $2,000 monthly online.
With a Dom Lite domiciliary account, you can receive unlimited inflows and make unlimited transfers, but you can only withdraw a maximum of $2,000 in cash.
Also, no cash deposit into the account is allowed. So, the account essentially minimizes cash transactions but promotes digital transactions.
For every withdrawal you make on the account, you’ll be charged a 0.05% fee of the amount withdrawn, which is very negligible.
If you want convenience, you could also request a dollar Mastercard for your Dom Lite Account, which would cost you $3 in issuance and $10 yearly in card maintenance.
Withdrawing from your ‘Dom Lite’ Domiciliary Account
Once you have received a wire transfer into your Dom Lite account, there are several ways you can withdraw your funds, depending on how much you received.
If you received less than $2,000 then you can always go to any Wema bank branch and withdraw your money over the counter.
You’ll be charged just 0.05% of the amount you’re withdrawing.
However, if you received more than $2,000 and you want to withdraw almost everything, then you can make an intra-bank FX transfer to someone, who’ll then pay you cash in Naira.
Most of the BDCs and dollar exchangers can help you withdraw your dollars this way.
Simply click on ‘Send Money’ on the homepage of your Dom Lite account.
Then, click on FX Transfer to initiate intra-bank FX transfer.
On the next page, click on ‘Add Beneficiary’ to add and confirm a saved beneficiary for your intra-bank FX transfers.
Then, add the details of the recipient domiciliary account.
Once you’ve added and saved a beneficiary for your intra-bank FX transfers, you can then start making transfers from your Dom Lite account to other people’s domiciliary accounts in Nigeria.
This is the fastest way to withdraw from your Dom Lite account without having to visit the bank.
The last option for withdrawing from your Dom Lite account would be to get a Mastercard for your account.
That will cost you $3 for the physical card, with an additional $10 in yearly maintenance fees.
Once you have a Mastercard for your Dom Lite account, you can easily move money from your ALAT account to any online wallet in dollars.
This way, you can spend your money on whatever you want, invest in whichever way you want, and Withdraw your money via several available online options.