The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reportedly prohibited several microfinance banks, including Moniepoint, Opay, and Kuda, from opening new accounts and accepting new customers.
This action comes amid allegations that these institutions were involved in funneling cryptocurrency and manipulating the value of the naira.
Sources familiar with the matter disclosed to The Peoples Gazette on Monday that the CBN implemented the ban on new accounts 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 these 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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This represents a setback from the currency’s recent upward trend, where it reached 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.”
In response to the significant depreciation of the naira in February, nearly reaching an exchange rate of N2000 to a dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) collaborated with the anti-graft commission, EFCC, to take action against Binance.
Executives 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.
