The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has recently imposed restrictions on several microfinance banks, including Moniepoint, Opay, and Kuda, preventing them from opening new accounts and accepting new customers.
This action comes in response to allegations that these banks were involved in the funneling of cryptocurrency and manipulation of the Nigerian naira’s value.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the CBN believes that these restrictions are necessary to combat money laundering activities, which have contributed to the recent depreciation of the naira against the dollar.
As of Monday evening, the naira was trading at N1350 against the dollar, marking a significant decline from its value earlier in April when it was trading at N950.
In response to the restrictions, Moniepoint posted a message on its platform informing potential customers that new sign-ups have been temporarily paused.
The message apologized for any inconvenience caused by the suspension of new account openings.
The CBN’s actions follow a period of drastic depreciation of the naira in February, during which it nearly reached N2000 to a dollar. In response to this situation, the CBN, in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), took action against Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
The CBN accused Binance of involvement in naira manipulation and detained two of its executives, Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla.
As part of negotiations for the release of the detained executives, the Nigerian government demanded that Binance disclose the names of its top 100 users and provide details of their transactions.
