The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has imposed a ban on several microfinance banks, including Moniepoint, Opay, and Kuda, from accepting new customers and opening new accounts.
Moniepoint, Opay, and Kuda have been accused of involvement in the manipulation of the naira and the funneling of cryptocurrency.
Sources familiar with the matter stated that the CBN implemented the ban as a measure to combat money-laundering activities, which have contributed to the recent decline in the naira’s value against the dollar.
According to sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, the naira traded at N1350 against the dollar as of Monday evening.
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The above represented a setback from the currency’s recent upward trend, where it reached N950 in early April.
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Moniepoint had released a statement on its platform for intending customers on Friday.
It had said:
“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 apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Recall that in response to the significant depreciation of the naira in February, almost reaching an exchange rate of N2000 to a dollar, CBN collaborated with the anti-graft commission, EFCC, to take action against Binance.
Tigran Gambaryan, a U S citizen, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla were detained on allegations of naira manipulation.
The Nigerian government subsequently demanded that Binance disclose the identities and transaction details of its top 100 users as part of negotiations to secure the release of the detained executives.
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