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Claim: Opay, Piggyvest, and Palmpay are part of the financial institution to be removed from fund transfer channels.
Verdict: False! According to the circular shared, these banks are not part of the 32 banks mentioned. Piggyvest and Opay have also released press releases to refute these claims.
Full Text
Nigerian banks received a circular from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) instructing them to remove non-deposit-taking financial institutions, such as switching companies, payment solution providers, and super agents, from their NIP fund transfer channels.
The NIP channels encompass USSD, mobile banking apps, PoS, ATMs, and web and internet platforms.
The policy enforcement aims to remove Fintechs without banking licenses from banks’ fund transfer channels. Under the new arrangement, the platforms are expected to facilitate outward transfers to banks but won’t be able to receive fund inflows.
This new development has sparked different reactions on social media on why the NIBSS is taking this new turn.
Twitter (X) user Molaramills shared a picture on her page that reads, “Opay, Palmpay, other non-deposit financial institutions to be taken down from fund transfer.” She captioned it: “Nigerian government are only good at gagging and inflicting pain on their citizens. Opay, Kuda, PiggyVest, and the rest that have been through everything for Nigerians, especially during that money crisis, than our regular commercial banks are now their problem. They don’t just like when we are too comfortable with things.”
These posts have been trailed with different reactions; Frederick Eze said it was fake news: “They are not part of it. Verify your information first before posting.”
Ore-ofe agreeing with the post, wrote, “They are good at inflicting problems on masses.”
Similar claims can be found on Facebook, tech blogs, and other X pages.
The post generated 14,000 views, 34 likes, and 21 reposts since it was posted on Dec. 7, 2023.
However, due to the controversial nature of the claim, we decided to fact-check its veracity.
Verification
DUBAWA examined the circular and saw that the NIBSS was also listed alongside the names of the affected banks. We checked the 32 names and could not find the banks mentioned earlier.
Moniepoint, Kuda, PiggyVest, Opay, Paga, and Palmpay are not on the list. The list involves Nigerian fintech firms with no deposit license.
On their official Twitter page, Opay wrote, “We wish to state that OPay is not affected by the recent circular published by NIBSS. The focus is on Payment Service Solution Providers, Switches, and Super Agents. OPay is a Mobile Money Operator (MMO) licensed by the CBN and insured by the NDIC.
Your funds are safe and secure with OPay.”
We also checked for Piggyvest and saw they wrote a disclaimer: “Kindly note that Piggyvest is not affected by the recent NIBSS circular. Please disregard the misinformation. All Piggyvest virtual account numbers are provided by our licensed partners and do not fall into any of the listed categories. Your funds remain safe,” the tweet reads.
The NIBSS, in the circular, explained that Switches, PSSPs, and SAs may process outward transfers as inflows to Banks but are not to receive inflows as their licenses do not permit them to hold customers’ funds.
The policy enforcement aims to remove fintechs without banking licenses from banks’ fund transfer channels. Under the new arrangement, the platforms are expected to facilitate outward transfers to banks but won’t be able to receive fund inflows.
These do not include Opay, Palmpay, and Piggyvest.
Conclusion
Opay, Piggyvest, and Palmpay are not part of the institution listed by NIBSS to be removed from fund forward transfer. The policy enforcement aims to remove Fintechs without banking licenses from banks’ fund transfer channels.
