CBN Bans Moniepoint, Opay, Kuda, Others From Taking New Customers

Some online microfinance banks in the country have been reportedly barred by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from opening new accounts and accepting new customers.

The microfinance banks include Moniepoint, PalmPay, Opay, PiggyVest, and Kuda, among others.

Sources told Peoples Gazette on Monday that the move was over allegations that the banks were being used to funnel cryptocurrency and manipulate the naira’s value.

The sources asserted that the CBN deemed the new-account-ban necessary to curb money-laundering activities which have seen the naira again plunge against the dollar in recent days.

However, in a message on its platform over the weekend, Moniepoint said it has temporarily paused new sign-ups for intending customers.

It wrote: “Hello! We’ve temporarily paused new sign-ups on our platform.

“This means that you’ll be unable to open a new account at the moment. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The naira, as of Monday evening, traded at N1350 against the dollar, which is a regression against the steady climb that the Nigerian currency has made over the past few weeks as it traded to N950 in early April.

Following the drastic depreciation of the naira in February which nearly exchanged at N2000 to a dollar, the CBN, in collaboration with the anti-graft commission, EFCC, cracked down on Binance and detained its executive Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla over accusations of naira manipulation.

The Nigerian government demanded that Binance release the names of its top 100 users and their transactions to negotiate the release of the detained executives.