The Central Bank of Nigeria has restricted several microfinance banks, including Moniepoint, Opay, and Kuda, from opening new accounts and accepting new customers due to allegations of involvement in cryptocurrency transactions and manipulation of the naira’s value, according to reports by Peoples Gazette on Monday.
Sources, speaking anonymously to The Gazette, indicated that the CBN imposed the ban on new account openings to combat money laundering activities that have contributed to the recent decline of the naira against the dollar.
As of Monday evening, the naira was trading at N1350 to the dollar, marking a reversal from its recent strengthening when it reached N950 in early April.
Moniepoint informed potential customers on Friday that they had temporarily paused new sign-ups on their platform, preventing the opening of new accounts. Similar measures were observed with other affected microfinance banks.
In response to significant naira depreciation in February, where it nearly reached N2000 to a dollar, the CBN and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) took action against Binance, detaining its executives Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla on allegations of naira manipulation.
The Nigerian government requested that Binance disclose information on its top 100 users and their transactions as part of negotiations for the release of the detained executives.
