- CBN lifts ban on OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda, Palmpay, and Paga, allowing them to resume onboarding new customers
- The decision follows concerns about illicit foreign exchange transactions, with affected fintechs confirming the news to their customers
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lifted the ban on OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda, Palmpay, and Paga, allowing these fintech companies to resume onboarding new customers.
This decision comes approximately five weeks after the CBN banned fintechs from onboarding new customers due to concerns that their accounts were being utilized for illicit foreign exchange transactions.
While the CBN has not released an official statement regarding this development, two affected fintechs, OPay and Kuda, confirmed the news in separate communications to their customers on Monday.
OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda others to resume onboarding new customers soon – CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that Nigerians will soon be able to open accounts with mobile money operators, including fintech firms like OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint.
Speaking during the 295th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso disclosed that the aforementioned financial institution will resume enrolling new customers in a few months.
At the meeting, the MPC raised the interest rate by 150 points from 24.75 per cent to 26.25 per cent.
Governor Cardoso stated that the CBN has been meeting with these operators to enhance their operational frameworks, adding that the objective is to check money laundering and illicit financial flows.
As part of these efforts, he stated that the CBN has introduced remedial measures aimed at strengthening the onboarding processes and managing the existing customer base more effectively.
“I am confident that as time goes on, and hopefully in another couple of months, all these will be something of the past, and then you will see that sector going back into what they’ve been known to do before, but certainly with a very stronger regulatory framework,” he said.
In April, the apex bank barred fintech companies from onboarding new customers, in what has been interpreted as a crackdown on the financial sub-sector by the Cardoso-led CBN.
When asked why the apex bank decided, the CBN chief stated that reports that the CBN had decided to go after fintech firms were false.
He said, “The fintechs have not been singled out for any exceptional kind of treatment, adding that the CBN remained proud of the exploits of fintech firms in the last number of years and the apex bank would continue to support and strengthen them.
