FX CRISIS: Opay, palmpay other fin tech barned from registering new customers

[Marvelockg]

Four Nigerian fintech companies have been directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend onboarding new customers.

The affected fintech are OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint.

This directive comes amidst investigations into allegations that accounts on these platforms have been used for illegal foreign exchange transactions.

A representative from two of the affected companies confirmed the CBN’s order is linked to these accusations.

However, they noted that the directive might be misdirected, as the majority 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,” one of the sources said.   

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

Or is it possible that bank owners can liaise with the government to place this kind of ban just to get people back from using these fin tech companies that has gradually taken the Nigerian financial system from banks?

What's your view on this?

[Nwada001]

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

What do you mean here? Do you think those fintech companies offer a decentralised service? If you are thinking so, then you are wrong. They are completely centralised, just like any other financial system.
 
The government might just be trying to limit the number of new people that might create new accounts to use for forex or for other purposes. As it's clear, this microfinance bank offers a faster payment service compared to the commercial banking system, which a lot of people use for daily transactions, making it their number one option.

Or is it possible that bank owners can liaise with the government to place this kind of ban just to get people back from using these fin tech companies that has gradually taken the Nigerian financial system from banks?
What's your view on this?

Why will the government fight in favour of the other? Both are offering financial services to Nigerian citizens; they are all licensed, they all pay taxes, and they have policies that they abide by, so why will the government work with some banks and commercial bank owners to limit their competitors services?
 
If you don't mind, can you share a link to the news? A lot of us will like to read through the news.

[Charles-Tim]

Why not just add the link. Like this: Forex deals: CBN stops 4 fintechs from onboarding new customers

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

There is nothing decentralized about this. They are all centralized.

What's your view on this?

They will see something to talk about just like how they made everyone to believe that crypto exchanges was the cause of naira value depreciation. CBN said it and started increasing naira value to make people believe.

They manipulated naira price down and inflation increased but they were unable to control the inflation but increase the value of naira back. This CBN should be investigated for manipulation. The CBN are only looking for solution where there is no solution.

[nelson4lov]

CBN is just moving mad these days. While I applaud the commission for trying to remedy the situation, I feel like they are going about it the wrong way. Rather than directly try to improve the economy, CBN is devoting all resources for a temporary fix which in my opinion will go kablowey. Stopping new user registration will provide CBN to trace the transaction of all existing customers and fish out users engaging in crypto transactions?

It's very disappointing to wake up everyday to new stories about the CBN trying to make moves like this that haven't impacted the economy in any way (YET).

[Charles-Tim]

Or is it possible that bank owners can liaise with the government to place this kind of ban just to get people back from using these fin tech companies that has gradually taken the Nigerian financial system from banks?
What's your view on this?

Why will the government fight in favour of the other? Both are offering financial services to Nigerian citizens; they are all licensed, they all pay taxes, and they have policies that they abide by, so why will the government work with some banks and commercial bank owners to limit their competitors services?

There is nothing impossible if this is the case but I also think this is not what actually happened but it is possible. All I think is that the CBN will investigate and later tell the companies to start accepting new customers if not guilty or make amendment that will not let what they alleged to be happening anymore. But Nigeria problem is more than this. I do not think they have intention to cease these Fintech operation in Nigeria.

[promise444c5]

Okay Let's  get thus straight
Any system  of Fiat exchange is centralised as it need to be accounted to government and its  agency  to maintain  the inflows and outflows.

My view on this :
Plans are not going quite well on crypto exchange wallets
Now there's a switch to to some particular set of banks,
Sooner they will start altering our privacy checking  transaction and lot more ...
They forgot there are some things that need to be stabilized apart from the dollar, they kept doing things blindly with no one to correct  them or maybe they are not just taking corrections.

What will be their next target?? Telecoms?? Lol.

[Charles-Tim]

CBN is just moving mad these days. While I applaud the commission for trying to remedy the situation, I feel like they are going about it the wrong way. Rather than directly try to improve the economy, CBN is devoting all resources for a temporary fix which in my opinion will go kablowey

Temporary fix or manipulation? There was inflation and the CBN increased naira value. They turned the definition of inflation upsidedown. I made a topic today to let us know that local products supposed to have been cheaper than what they are. You can see it here:

What has the FCCPC achieved?

CBN wrong moves made all these happened with side effects.

They forgot there are some things that need to be stabilized apart from the dollar, they kept doing things blindly with no one to correct them or maybe they are not just taking corrections.

You are correct.

[Perfectbaby]

I knew there must be a day to come when Central Bank would like to attack all these fintech banks due to their poor services and operation they want to use this medium to start reck down these people since they are pulling much crowd and population to their usuage unlike the other commercial banks.

You know the so called commercial banks fails to understand that there must be a competition between them and the fintech bank, which it requires upgrading their services.

[Hewlet]

When will Nigeria learn to fix the root cause of the problem rather than chasing after mere clout? No one can deny the reality that since these fin tech companies has gained the public acceptance, it has gone a long way to making things easier for people covering up for all the incompetence of our commercial banks that have still refused to improve on thier poor customers service and bad network that makes banking with them a big disaster for most customers.

Should they now deny intending users access to a mobile banking service because old users supposedly used this service in a wrong way? What happens to fetching out those that have used these platform to carry out illegal foreign exchange transactions? To the best of my knowledge our politician are the primary source that are known to miander illegal money outside of the shores of these country through our banking system that they are very much a part of and no bank has been sanction for allowing politicians carry out transactions with them.

A see a huge conspiracy here from both the angle of the commercial banks in collaboration with central to frustrate these fin tech companies or should we now conclude that we don't like good thing at all?

[Charles-Tim]

EFCC has started arresting BBC operators again. They even arrested speculators few weeks ago. This time, not also only BDC operators that were arrested, they also arrested some traders.

https://punchng.com/bdc-operators-arrested-as-naira-weakens-to-1419/

I saw a truth in this:

https://punchng.com/floods-currency-devaluation-set-to-propel-nigerias-inflation-in-2025/

Let me quote it for you:

Reuters noted that the acute shortage of dollars in much of the continent including Angola, Nigeria, and Zambia has often put home inflation under significant strain due to a reliance on single commodity currency inflows such as crude oil and copper.

We have always be discussing this to be the issue but which the government neglected.

@promise444c5 and @ Hewlet. Can you see that you are correct. The root cause is not tackled. A country with a population of over 200 million that prefer to reply more on imported products.

[promise444c5]

A country with a population of over 200 million that prefer to reply more on imported products.

The 200M was even a result of a old census and I doubt they were able to complete the head counts even then .

At this age and era, with our population  we majorly rely on a sole export which Is crude oil  that's  not even as worse as not  even having a refinery  to refined this crude oil instead we re-import it at higher price that's so embarrassing .
Nigeria  is blessed with alot of land mass and natural resources to the extent that some are undetected  due to fact that we show concern to do research and reach such areas.
Thus, with the whole resources  we import almost everything  which us so bad, even the one we produce ourselves are even expensive than the imports ..... Government  could make a difference  even if we are to be the best producers of agriculture  materials  (either raw or processed) we have the land mass, is it the tourist centers  that we can't make solid and much more attractive  to bring more tourists  to our country??
We have the natural resources beign misused and stolen from us by foreigners just because  some groups are benefiting out of it .
Government  kept on neglecting the fact that the more they make the economy worsen the more they are  increase crime rate .. they left the undone and going after what will surely affect the majority and now its crypto turn .
At the end they will be back to the loop  of taking  things again from the beginning, making things much more worst to revive.

[Hewlet]

EFCC has started arresting BBC operators again. They even arrested speculators few weeks ago. This time, not also only BDC operators that were arrested, they also arrested some traders.

https://punchng.com/bdc-operators-arrested-as-naira-weakens-to-1419/

I saw a truth in this:

https://punchng.com/floods-currency-devaluation-set-to-propel-nigerias-inflation-in-2025/

they should leave the BDC operators and arrest the likes of adeyemi deji who has been seriously advocating that Nigerians should convert all their fiat to dollar

Let me quote it for you:

Reuters noted that the acute shortage of dollars in much of the continent including Angola, Nigeria, and Zambia has often put home inflation under significant strain due to a reliance on single commodity currency inflows such as crude oil and copper.

We have always be discussing this to be the issue but which the government neglected.

@promise444c5 and @ Hewlet. Can you see that you are correct. The root cause is not tackled. A country with a population of over 200 million that prefer to reply more on imported products.

the issue is that we don't even want to accept the fact that we are at a very critical stage as a nation where almost everything isn't working at all and we're still being hypocritical about setting out real policies that will help remedy the whole situation. Even if after arresting all the BDC operators and then they are able to ban crypto and forex entirely, the only thing they've successfully done is to set the country on a time bomb that will explode in no time. Is it not foolishness that the viability of our economy is totally dependent on the effect of our foreign exchange even when we have all it takes to meeting at least 70% of our national needs locally? Is it not bad enough that outside of oil, no real attention is payed to other sectors that have proven to be a good source of revenue generation for us In the past? Our educational sector is dying and our young student have lost interest in the schooling system because we Don't want to diversify into other sectors outside of oil that will help in creating more jobs for graduate and you don't think that's enough problem to solve and you think by just fucking around with mere clout that doesn't solve real economic problem you can make the country better? It's a shame.

[Gozie51]

Well this news initially created panic among users and hodlers of such Fintech accounts. They misinterpreted the ban of new users to be outright ban of them, meaning say their money don waka but now that the news is coming in properly, I think d fear go reduce.

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

Dem no be decentralized na, dem be micro banks wey get lower limit transactions unlike the banks. So I wonder how dem go be points for illegal transactions, I mean like how much go enter in or out of am. A pointer say government just dey struggle with hodling dollar exchange rate down instead of improving the economy and everything go fall in place. Today now I dey hear say fuel don dey increase again and causing queues for some places, na how that increase for fuel go take help the economy

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

Glad someone dun tell you say fiats banks can't be decentralized, they'll always need approval from the central bank to operate in a country, if dem been dey decentralized why dem come dey listen to wetin CBN talk. Make we leave them because this na flight between the centralized system because many things fit dey cause this things and Nigeria government go just use one thing cover up use be the reason why dem no dey allow them register new users again. I try register for palmpay and after I download the app dem no allow me sign up meaning say this thing dun take full effect already.

What's your view on this?

This all boils down to the crack down of dollars and stabilization of the Naira if you ask me. You know say although dollars dun fall but e never still stabilized and the governments dey try all means to make the Naira stabilized na wetin they bring all this policies. This fin tech dem dey easy to open and alot of large transactions are going on with them them thereby foreign exchange still dey happen without the government been aware so this crackdown na to block all loophole wey business men/women dey use. Alot of business men (importers) dey use all this fintech companies use run usdt transaction instead of normal dollars since e dey easy to buy and sell dollars them through P2P exchange with them so all this one na just the government being controlling and make we dey see how e go end.

[Zackz5000]

I think CBN is just been jealous of theses fintech bank due to how fast these fintech bank operate and there low charge rate which has made most people and business men and women to be using them.
The population (customers) is high that's why CBN has banned them from registering new customers.

[Antotena]

I knew there must be a day to come when Central Bank would like to attack all these fintech banks due to their poor services and operation they want to use this medium to start reck down these people since they are pulling much crowd and population to their usuage unlike the other commercial banks.

You know the so called commercial banks fails to understand that there must be a competition between them and the fintech bank, which it requires upgrading their services.

It's seem so, the way they shutdown new customers from on boarding new customer is unjust, if we have a good judiciary system, the Fintech company can actually sue central bank and I'm sure they are going to win this case because from Nairametrics, it was shown that from the number of accounts that were ban, only 10% of the accounts belong to the Fintech, the 90% are all from commercial banks but they didn't instructs the commercial banks to stop bringing new customers, that's not fair.

This is not just fight against FX manipulation, the central banks are just trying to reduce the activities because commercial banks are no longer making it again. They have increased their KYC levels, request for NIN, now tell me what they want again from customers. Nigeria na big problem I swear to grow business I swear.

[Bravut]

Nigeria Government lack methods to cope the economy crash, if not why the ban on new customers does the ban affect other accounts they have created if any... what's this competition themselves are competing against fintech. There is no policy they haven't made for fintech, mehn it's exhausting. Is bad for people to trade FX or get involved into trading, and financial market. It laughable.

Just this morning OHX ban Naira p2p, this is what our government wants. They are making things worst everyday, Ministers without common judgment of financial issues.

[SatoPrincess]

It seems the government is hell bent on sabotaging any efforts the youths make to earn a honest living. I just found out about the regulation of fintech banks just this morning. I thought it be good to share the update here.

I just login my palmpay account this morning to make transfer when I see their notification say CBN don give instruction say make them no dey allow their users to make transactions way concern crypto through their platform. I still check my Palmpay account sef, na the same message I dey see there. Them even send me SMS sef. My head dey spin since as I dey think how we go fit take exchange our coins to naira if the traditional banks and fintech banks dey close accounts way them connect to crypto trading.

Since Binance don cast I know say many of their previous users don dey use remitano or other p2p exchanges. I dey use remitano trade, and for the app them get option way you fit convert your coins to naira automatically (NGNR), I dey feel say these exchange platforms go soon change their policies so that them no go enter government wahala.

This no be the first time CBN and Nigerian government dey ban crypto transactions, the last time Nigerians come dey use format of say them no go dey add anything related to crypto for the transaction note and e been dey work that year. I sure say the format go don cast by now so wetin be the new thing we fit do to avoid CBN closing our accounts?

 


https://punchng.com/dont-trade-in-crypto-opay-palmpay-others-warn-customers/?amp]

[Mia Chloe]

Omo this Naija crypto and forex crisis nor be small thing oo government just de close ways way people fit take de do crypto and forex transaction. On top say the matter no sharp e de kindof painful as many Naija people de way dis crypto and forex of a thing na their main source of money. And as dis matter de sup so e go come make am de difficult for them to de make money.

I First de hear d recent warning way all the micro finance de give like de palmpay, opay and kuda. But as of today when I take open my opay the thing break my heart to see say government Dem don still warn our mobile banking apps about crypto and forex trade.

[Africolo]

It seems the government is hell bent on sabotaging any efforts the youths make to earn a honest living. I just found out about the regulation of fintech banks just this morning. I thought it be good to share the update here.

The new fintech banks restrictions are not different from what the commercial banks have being doing for a long time now, the fintech banks are only getting this directive now cause when it was issued to commercial banks Fintech banks were not duly licensed to hold customer's money.

Still, trade your crypto transactions as before not including any related words to your transactions or better still tag it under "utility bill " don't always leave it blank.