The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has published the names of eleven international money transfer operators (IMTOs) licensed to operate in Nigeria.
According to Isaac Okorafor (Ag. Director, Corporate Communications) in a CBN press release, this was done as part of efforts to liberalise the Foreign Exchange Market, ensure liquidity and make foreign exchange more readily available to low end users.
The newly licensed IMTOs include:
- Trans-Fast Remittance LLC,
- Worldremit Limited,
- UAE Exchange Centre LLC,
- Wari Limited,
- Homesend SCRL,
- Small World Financial Services Group Limited,
- Weblink International Limited,
- Cashpot Limited,
- DT&T Corporation Limited,
- FIEM Group LLC DBA Ping Express and
- CP Express Limited.
The CBN reiterated its commitment to providing an enabling environment for international money transfer services in Nigeria.
WorldRemit, recently called for the urgent restoration of money transfers to Nigeria as draconian new rules left virtually all money transfer operators (MTOs) unable to provide services to the West African country.
Only three companies – Western Union, MoneyGram and Ria – were previously able to do International money transfer operations, following an extreme and unexpected move by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
World Remit being one of the companies in the list, through Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO of WorldRemi, comments on this development;
“We commend the the Central Bank of Nigeria for reaffirming the country’s commitment to building an enabling environment and level-playing field for international money transfer services to Nigeria. Increased competition will help to bring the estimated 50% of remittances to Nigeria that currently go through unregulated, informal networks into formal networks channelled through licensed IMTOs.
“We’re grateful to the many Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora that supported our call for money transfers to be restored. A competitive remittance market provides Nigerians with greater convenience and better pricing.”
