OPay pays CBN, other regulators N994m in penalties between 2023, 2025

OPay Digital Services Limited, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-licensed mobile money operator, paid nearly N1 billion in regulatory fines between 2023 and 2025 over violations involving anti-money laundering, terrorism financing, data protection and other regulatory requirements.

The company’s audited financial statements, submitted for regulatory scrutiny, disclosed that it incurred a cumulative N994 million in penalties imposed by the CBN and other regulatory agencies during the three-year period.

The fines, which involved multiple breaches of financial regulations and corporate governance requirements, have raised questions about the company’s compliance framework, internal controls and risk management systems.

The violations included breaches of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, the CBN Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Regulations 2022, Customer Due Diligence Regulations 2023 and Consumer Protection Regulations 2019.

Other penalties were imposed by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Breakdown of regulatory penalties

The disclosures showed that OPay paid N26 million in 2023 for violations relating to money laundering and terrorism financing.

READ ALSO; OPay explains how Nigerians can access FG’s N50,000 monthly cash relief

In 2024, the company incurred N113.7 million in penalties for repeated anti-money laundering and terrorism financing breaches, alongside N197 million for violations of BOFIA.

It also paid N10 million for customer due diligence failures and N2 million for breaches of consumer protection regulations.

Other penalties included N125 million imposed over data protection violations, N7 million from ARCON for advertising-related breaches and N1 million from CAC for violations of the Companies and Allied Matters Act.

In 2025, OPay paid another N464 million to the CBN for violating the Framework for Mobile Money Services in Nigeria 2021.

The penalties cut across critical areas of financial services regulation, including customer verification, transaction monitoring, consumer protection and the handling of personal information.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing controls are particularly important for mobile money operators because of their role in processing large volumes of digital transactions.

Similarly, the NDPC sanction highlights the increasing regulatory scrutiny of how financial technology companies collect, process, store and protect customers’ personal data.

The disclosures come amid OPay’s recent withdrawal of its planned initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following a regulatory inquiry in an undisclosed foreign jurisdiction.

The fintech company had planned to raise $304 million through the sale of 16 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $19 each, targeting a valuation of approximately $4 billion.

However, on October 30, 2026, OPay announced that it had mutually agreed with its underwriters to terminate the offering, barely a day after signing the underwriting agreement.

The company attributed the decision to an ongoing regulatory inquiry, although it did not disclose the jurisdiction involved.

OPay described the matter as immaterial to its core business and expressed confidence that it would be resolved soon.

The latest regulatory disclosures add another dimension to scrutiny of the fintech company’s compliance record as it navigates regulatory requirements in Nigeria and its proposed international capital market expansion.