Wi-Pay secures international money transfer operations approval from CBN

Wi-Pay has announced it has been granted an approval-in-principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for international money transfer operations (IMTO).

In the letter received from the CBN and signed by Mr. W.D. Gotring, Ag director of Trade & Exchange, it was stated that upon review of its application, an approval was granted to the company to commence operations for in-bound international remittances.

The market for international inbound remittance to Nigeria is quite substantial and growing steadily. Based on 2015 figures, in excess of $21 billion was remitted to Nigeria, which accounts for the second highest source of foreign exchange flow after crude oil exports, surpassing both foreign direct and portfolio investments combined. Nigeria ranks as the leading international remittance destination in Africa and one of the top-10 global destinations according to the World Bank 2016 Remittance Fact book.

Thus far international remittance business is dominated by the legacy operators like Western Union, MoneyGram and RIA, with a combined market share of over 80%, but that has gradually been eroding.

With the licensing of new digital and nimble operators like Wi-PAY GLOBAL, the emphasis will be on providing digital Peer-to-Peer (P2P) speedy, convenient and reliable remittance services to Nigerians in the Diaspora at cheaper cost, thereby saving money on unnecessarily high fees.