WARNING!!! Investors And Customers Panic As CBN Fines Opay N946m Over Money Laundering And Terrorism Financing Breaches
OPay Digital Services Limited, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) licensed mobile money operator, is set to pay a whopping ₦994 million in regulatory fines to the CBN and other authorities for non-compliance with industry guidelines .
The penalties, incurred between 2023 and 2025, stem from severe infractions of financial, data, corporate, and advertising rules set by four distinct regulatory bodies. These disclosures in OPay’s audited accounts have raised critical questions about the fintech giant’s internal controls and corporate governance, especially as it operates heavily within one of Africa’s largest financial markets.
A major portion of the sanctions targets OPay’s failure to strictly adhere to Nigeria’s stringent financial and security protocols. The company was heavily penalized for violating key provisions of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, as well as essential anti-money laundering and terrorism financing guidelines. Specifically, OPay breached the CBN’s Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing Regulation 2022, alongside the CBN Customer Due Diligence Regulation 2023 and the Consumer Protection Regulations 2019, underscoring significant lapses in its operational oversight and user verification processes.
Beyond the banking sector, OPay ran afoul of several other federal watchdogs tasked with data security and corporate standards. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) fined the mobile money operator for breaching the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, raising concerns over consumer privacy. Furthermore, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) both imposed additional fines on the company for violating their respective regulatory acts, completing a sweeping wave of enforcement actions against the platform.
The detailed breakdown of OPay’s ₦994 million penalties reveals a pattern of financial and regulatory enforcement spanning three consecutive years . In 2023, the mobile money operator paid an initial ₦26 million fine to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) specifically for money laundering and terrorism financing violations. Despite this initial sanction, the fintech company was hit with a much larger ₦113.7 million penalty in 2024 for recurring breaches under the exact same money laundering and terrorism financing categories, signaling persistent systemic challenges.
The year 2024 brought a massive wave of additional enforcement actions targeting OPay’s core banking and data operations. The company was slammed with a ₦197 million fine for direct violations of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020. This was accompanied by a ₦10 million penalty for customer due diligence lapses, a ₦2 million fine for consumer protection regulation breaches, and a staggering ₦125 million penalty issued by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) for serious data privacy violations.
Further expanding the regulatory onslaught in 2024, alternative federal watchdogs penalized OPay for corporate and operational misconduct. The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) slapped the mobile money services firm with a ₦7 million fine for blatant advertising regulation breaches. Additionally, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) stepped in to impose a ₦1 million penalty over specific violations of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), emphasizing that the lapses extended well beyond financial transaction tracking.
The regulatory crackdown reached its monetary peak in 2025 when the Central Bank of Nigeria leveled its heaviest blow against the fintech giant. OPay was forced to pay a massive ₦464 million fine directly to the apex bank for breaching the Framework for Mobile Money Services in Nigeria 2021. This single penalty accounted for nearly half of the company’s total cumulative fines, underscoring the severity with which regulators treated its operational departures from standard mobile money protocols.
These repeated and compounding regulatory violations have ignited severe industry concerns regarding potential deep-seated weaknesses in OPay’s internal compliance frameworks. The broad range of penalties highlights vulnerabilities in the company’s anti-money laundering (AML) controls, identity verification, user privacy safeguards, and consumer protection protocols. For digital financial service providers operating in today’s landscape, maintaining a foolproof compliance architecture is absolutely vital to retaining public trust and meeting both domestic and international standards.
The lapses in AML and due diligence are especially concerning, given their critical role in preventing financial crime.
The significant penalty from the NDPC also signals the growing importance of data protection as digital platforms handle increasing volumes of personal information.
IPO Withdrawal Amid Regulatory Scrutiny
These critical compliance issues have emerged at a highly sensitive time for OPay, as the fintech giant recently withdrew its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following a regulatory inquiry in an undisclosed foreign jurisdiction. Prior to the abrupt withdrawal, the company had planned to raise $304 million through the sale of 16 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $19 each , a high-stakes move that was explicitly targeting an ambitious $4 billion market valuation.
On October 30, 2026, OPay officially announced a mutual agreement with its underwriters to terminate the offering —a drastic decision that came just a single day after signing the underwriting agreement—due to the pressure of the ongoing foreign regulatory inquiry.
