Fintechs and microfinance banks like Opay, Kuda, and Moniepoint, which operated locally with their licences, have had them upgraded by the Central Bank of Nigeria to national status.
This development was announced by the Director of the Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department of the CBN, Femi Solaja, during the annual conference of the Committee of Heads of Bank Operations in Lagos. 
According to him, the body came to this decision after careful analysis of the growth of fintechs and microfinance banks in the past few years whose operations have spanned across the country.
In reality, their activities are now all over the country. Most of their customers are informal people. “They need to know where to report when there is a problem.” He said.
Mr. Solaja made it clear that the upgrade isn’t something that was impulsively decided, but granted only after MFM banks and Fintechs meet a certain criterion.
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Why Is This Happening?
Fintechs and microfinance banks are usually licensed under tier one or tier two units and are allowed to operate only in specific regions in the country.
With this upgrade, it means that there are now stricter requirements for these microfinance banks and fintech companies.
National MFBs are now required to have a capital of N5 billion, increased from N2 billion.
Unit MFB Tier II must have N50 million, Tier I N200 million, and State MFBs N1 billion.
Major FinTech companies such as Opay, Moniepoint, and Paga now operate within these frameworks.
This improvement in policies will now help the CBN monitor how much these institutions are evolving.
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