Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has issued license to 11 new International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs). This was disclosed in a statement released by the apex bank's Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor yesterday August 30th. The new entrants are joining Western Union, MoneyGram and Ria, which had been cleared by the CBN.

The new operators are Trans-Fast Remittance LLC; WorldRemit Limited, UAE Exchange Centre LLC; Wari Limited, Homesend S.C.R.L, Small World Financial Services Group Limited and Weblink International Limited. Others are Cash Pot Limited, DT&T Corporation Limited, Fiem Group LLC DBA Ping Express and CP Express Limited. According to the CBN, the new entrants were licensed as part of efforts to liberalise the Foreign Exchange Market, ensure liquidity and make foreign exchange more readily available to low end users.

Part of the statement reads

“The CBN wishes to state, unequivocally, that it has not foreclosed the licensing of interested players in the IMTO space in Nigeria. Therefore, interested applicants are required to forward their requests for licensing to the Director, Trade and Exchange Department of the CBN, in line with the CBN Guidelines on International Money Transfer Services in Nigeria (2014), which among other things, specifies the minimum technical and business requirements for various participants in the international money transfer services industry in Nigeria. The CBN remains committed to providing an enabling environment for international money transfer services in Nigeria. It is, however, important to emphasise that a prospective player shall first obtain the requisite licence to operate in Nigeria as an IMTO. The CBN wishes to advise Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to beware of the unwholesome activities of some unlicensed IMTOs in Nigeria. This warning has become necessary because of the activities of some unregistered IMTOs, whose modes of operation are detrimental to the Nigerian economy".


https://teacherloaded..com.ng/2016/08/cbn-issues-license-to-11-new-intl-money.html

nice one

Why ban them in the first place.smh.

This is good and bad news for bloggers like me. Good news because worldremit is one of the best out there. But bad news as I just checked their rate and it is ridiculously too poor.

1 pound to give 445 naira when my other sender is 1 pound to 501 naira. They used to be the best in terms of rate now they are rubbish. ALmost like they are going with CBN official rates.

CBN should come down heavily on Western union too. The situation whereby one of their insider collects your money and claims you did should stop. Banks officials are western union are working together to reap people.

I once lost $1000 to Western union and stopped using them. It is madness, they should be forced to pay you back when clearly you are not the one that has received the payment.

amagunnerfan:
CBN should come down heavily on Western union too. The situation whereby one of their insider collects your money and claims you did should stop. Banks officials are western union are working together to reap people.

I once lost $1000 to Western union and stopped using them. It is madness, they should be forced to pay you back when clearly you are not the one that has received the payment.

Oga, you lost $1k to them and went home?

Chie. U must be really loaded.

By the time u tear ground for everyone, they ll provide the identity of the receiver. What is the meaning of that nah.

DCTrendy:


Oga, you lost $1k to them and went home?

Chie. U must be really loaded.

By the time u tear ground for everyone, they ll provide the identity of the receiver. What is the meaning of that nah.

I didn't go home oo but the bank manager of the said bank is a very close friend. I pursued it with western union for 6 months before I gave up.

It is often done from the agents sending the money. They will send, mark it as picked up almost immediately.

Hmmmm
This CNB sef. The problem with the WU, MoneyGram only policy of a few weeks ago is not so much that they deny diaspora Nigerians of choice, but that it requires the money transfer companies to remit the hard currency to Nigerian banks at whatever inter-bank rate the CBN created through its manipulation. If the condition for licensing these new IMTOs is that they also remit the hard currency to Nigeria, then they can be sure it is not going to solve anything. It should be clear to CBN by now that provided that there is a wide difference between the inter-bank rate and the black market rate, Nigerians in diaspora will find ways to get the black market rate for their hard earned FX. And actually this is not difficult at all as there are always Nigerians with Naira ready to exchange for FX at or close to the black market rate. Just this week a friend in Nigeria needed $500 urgently in the USA, and all we did was that I paid the money into his designated US account, and he paid the Naira equivalent (at 400) into my designated Nigerian account. It didn't even take 30 mins!
The point here is that the CBN is deliberately ignoring the primary reason for the high demand of FX by Nigerians which is overwhelming either to pay for goods or services overseas. It doesn't make any sense to demand that the FX physically comes into a Nigerian bank before this requirement is met. Setting all these crap requirements only has the negative effect of reducing the FX supply to the economy.