The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed four fintech companies to halt onboarding new customers pending further notice. The directive came two days after the EFCC blocked 1,146 bank accounts involved in unauthorised forex dealings.
The affected fintechs, OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint, have been linked to allegations of accounts used for illicit foreign exchange transactions.
Two of the fintech’s representatives have reportedly confirmed that the CBN’s directive is related to these allegations. However, reports from TechCabal suggest that the fintechs believe the directive might be misdirected, as most of the implicated accounts belong to commercial banks, not fintech platforms.
“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.
It is noteworthy that customer deposits and banking activities have not been affected.
