Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Freezes Operations of Local Fintechs.

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Accounts belonging to fintech platforms; Risevest, Bamboo, Chaka, and Trove have been frozen by the Federal High Court in Abuja on a lawsuit filed by CBN against them claiming that they are responsible for making Naira weaker to US dollars.

The temporary operational ban CBN source claims will last for 6 months to enable CBN investigate the unauthorized use of forex by the platforms for purchase of foreign bonds, shares and savings in forex for it’s Nigerian users.

According to Techcabal, the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an exparte motion which sought temporary freezing of bank accounts belonging to these online investment and trading platforms where Nigerians are transacting business online.

The motion was filed by Chief Micheal Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, on behalf of the Central Bank Of Nigeria Governor for the purpose of probing the financial activities of these four fintech companies in Nigeria.

The CBN alleged that Rise Vest Technologies Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited, Chaka Technologies Limited and Trove Technologies Limited were complicit in operating without license as asset management companies “and utilizing FX sourced from the Nigerian FX market for purchasing foreign bonds/shares in contravention of the CBN circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/012, dated July 01, 2015.”

Reacting to this announcement on their Twitter handles, Risevest’s CEO Eke Eleanya Urum and Bamboo assure users of Risevest that trading activities will continue as usual and the issue will be sorted out with the regulators.

Yemi Johnson a tech CEO of hotelng advised users not to panic as their funds are in securities held by a foreign company. This is coming as many users of the affected platforms complained of their inability to log into their accounts on the affected platforms.