The Central Bank of Nigeria has withdrawn the operating licences of 46 microfinance banks across the country with immediate effect. Add Goldfish MFB, whose licence was suspended in May and disclosed by the CBN on June 30, and 47 microfinance banks now have far bigger problems to worry about.
According to the CBN, some of the affected institutions no longer had sufficient assets to cover their liabilities; some stopped operating without approval; others became inactive; and a few never even commenced business after receiving licences. Some of the names on the list include Creditville MFB, Gold MFB, NowNow Digital MFB, and Sycamore MFB.
That’s probably the name that will make fintechs do a double-take. In May, the Nigerian fintech acquired an MFB in Kano to expand from digital lending into banking and payments. Instead of spending years applying for a banking licence from scratch, fintechs such as Paystack and Flutterwave have acquired existing microfinance banks to inherit the regulatory infrastructure.