Opay To Commence Physical Address Verification For Customers

Fintech company, Opay has informed customers that it will commence a physical address verification exercise for existing customers on its platform soon. According to an announcement on its Twitter handle, this is in line with fulfilling the new CBN requirements.

According to the fintech company, this will involve its staff visiting merchants’ physical locations. Hence, the merchants should ensure to verify their identity:

“For your security, please ensure that you verify the identity of our personnel to prevent any possibility of impersonation or fraud. Our staff will carry proper identification (Opay ID card, Lark Business Card, BD tool or General Agent Platform) for this purpose”, the statement says.

This follows an earlier announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that mobile money operators including fintech firms like OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint will resume the enrolment of new customers “in another couple of months”.

Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, stated this after the 295th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the apex bank in Abuja. Mr Cardoso told the media that the apex bank had engaged many of the players on the need to strengthen their operations. The Governor explained that the bank is introducing “remedial measures that will help that sector to tighten up on onboarding and even existing clientele base” that will block money laundering and illicit flows.

“I am confident that as time goes on, and hopefully in another couple of months, all these will be something of the past and then you will see that sector going back into what they’ve been known to do before, but certainly with a very stronger regulatory framework,” he said.

In April, the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped mobile money operators including fintech firms from onboarding new customers until further notice. The directive affected fintech companies such as OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint, from opening new accounts.

The CBN’s move was linked to an audit of the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process of the fintech companies. Analysts believe that these companies have been under scrutiny in recent months over concerns around money laundering and terrorism financing.

Following the CBN announcement, platforms like OPay warned customers against using their accounts to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions.  In a statement, the company said that it will close accounts involved in crypto trading in line with a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).