Nigeria warns of ‘illegal’ money transfers operators

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again warned Nigerians in Diaspora against sending money through illegal International Money Transfer Operators( IMTOs).

The apex bank says its attention had been drawn to the increasing patronage of illegal Money Transfer Operators by Nigerians in the Diaspora for home remittances. The bank advised Nigerians in foreign countries to do their transactions only through licensed operators.

According to a  statement signed by  Mr. Isaac Okorafor, Acting Director, Corporate Communication at CBN, “these unscrupulous operators, who lure unsuspecting customers with ridiculous exchange rate, use Naira accounts opened in local banks ostensibly for legal business to pay out the proceeds to the beneficiaries while channelling the foreign currencies to fund the parallel market.”

Okorafor says this practice has led to non-reporting of such transactions to relevant authorities, a development that allegedly undermines effective surveillance of the sector as well as leading to discrepancies in statistics on the transactions between countries of origin of remittance and the destination country, Nigeria.

“Nigerians in the Diaspora are advised not to patronise unlicensed International Money Transfer Operators, as they stand the risk of losing their hard-earned money,” the statement says.

“Such accounts, when discovered, will be blocked and the operators handed over to appropriate law enforcement agencies for prosecution,” it further says.

CBN says that Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) should ensure painstaking conduct of “Know Your Customers’ Business” (KYB) in order to prevent the use of accounts for illegal transactions and avoid regulatory sanctions.

For the avoidance of doubt, the statement thus provided a list of the International Money Transfer Operators licensed and authorised by the Central Bank of Nigeria to remit money to Nigeria on behalf of Nigerians in the Diaspora:

As at November 9, 2016, the CBN says the following are the licensed IMTOs:

1. Aftab Currency Exchange Limited
2. Aws Malta Limited
3. Caperemit Uk Limited
4. Cashpot Limited
5. Centrexcard Limited
6. Colony Capital Limited
7. Cp Express Limited
8. Daytona Capital Management Limited
9. DT&T Corporation Limited
10. Etransact Limited
11. Fiem Group LLC DBA Ping Express
12. First Apple Inc.
13. First Transfer Inc.
14. Foren Money Limited
15. Funtech Global Communications Limited
16. GDM Transfer PTY Limited
17. Homesend S.C.R.L
18. IDT Payment Services Inc.
19. Moneygram
20. Nouveau Mobile Limited
21. Pagatech Limited
22. RIA Financial
23. Sanaa Capital LLC (Money4 Diaspora Services LLC)
24. Small World Financial Services Group Limited
25. TCF Limited
26. Trans-Fast Remittance LLC
27. UAE Exchange Centre LLC
28. Venture Garden Nigeria
29. VTNetwork Limited
30. Wari Limited
31. Weblink International Limited
32. Western Union
33. Wi-Pay Global LLC
34. Worldremit Limited