Popular fintech startup OPay has denied claims that it opened accounts for customers without their consent following an internal investigation into the matter. Two days ago, the company came under scrutiny as news made rounds that many people are now discovering they had an account in their name with the company even without opening one.
The company has responded to this controversy by saying investigations have revealed that some of the numbers involved had, at some point in 2019/2020, created an OPay account, insisting that an OPay wallet can only be created through the CBN-established registration process, which requires the input of an OTP authentication (one-time password) from the user's phone to proceed. The company also stated,
"OPay has never created (nor does it operate) an account on behalf of any individual."
However, data protection laws in Nigeria mandate organisations to clearly articulate their lawful basis for processing user data. Regardless of Opay's claims, many questions still need to be answered. Nigeria's Data Protection Commission is said to begin investigations this week as it has already served Opay a notice for investigation.
