The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered four fintech companies to suspend the admission and onboarding of new customer till further notice.
The affected fintech firms, namely OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint, have come under scrutiny due to allegations of their accounts being utilised for illicit foreign exchange transactions.
However, the companies have fired back that the directive might be misdirected, because majority of the implicated accounts operated in commercial banks rather than fintech platforms.
This new directive comes in the wake of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) obtaining a court order to freeze some 1,146 bank accounts owned by individuals and companies allegedly involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions and terrorism financing and money laundering.
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on the ex-parte motion presented by the anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, granted the commission’s request to conclude the investigation within 90 days.
