The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has banned some microfinance banks, including Moniepoint, Opay and Kuda, from opening new accounts and accepting new customers.
The ban came on the heels of allegations that they were used to funnel crypto-currency and manipulate the naira’s value.
However, sources say that the CBN considered ban on opening the new-account necessary to checkmate the issue of money-laundering activities which have seen the Naira again plunge against the dollar in recent days.
Naira as at yesterday, Monday traded at N1,350 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.
“Hello! We’ve temporarily paused new sign-ups on our platform,” Moniepoint wrote in a message on its platform for intending customers on Friday.
“This means that you’ll be unable to open a new account at the moment. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Following the drastic depreciation of the naira in February which nearly exchanged at N2000 to a dollar, CBN, in collaboration with anti-graft commission, EFCC, cracked down on Binance and detained its executives 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.
Courtesy: Peoples Gazette
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