The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed four fintech companies to suspend onboarding new customers until further notice temporarily.
The fintech startups listed earlier include OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint.
There are allegations that these companies’ accounts were involved in illegal foreign currency operations.
Representatives from two companies told Nairametrics that the CBN’s order is related to the claims.
However, they pointed out that the mandate may be misguided, as most of the affected accounts are owned by commercial banks rather than fintech companies. TechCabal first reported this Development, which Nairametrics can confirm.
“I can confirm that 90% of the accounts implicated in the illicit forex transactions are with commercial banks, and only 10% are with fintechs.
“Why then has the CBN not extended this directive to the commercial banks? We face a widespread issue here, and targeting fintechs seems like an unfair focus on the more vulnerable targets,” one of the sources explained.
