The Central Bank of Nigeria upgraded five of the country's leading mobile-money platforms to national payment-bank status on 27 January 2026, substantially expanding the operating rights of OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda, PalmPay, and Paga. The five firms had previously held payment-service-bank licences, a category that carried more limited geographic reach and more restrictive deposit-taking authority than the newly granted national designation.
Under the upgraded licences, all five platforms are now authorised to operate across all 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and may accept larger customer deposits than were permitted under their prior status. The CBN said the licences were granted as part of its 2025–2028 financial-inclusion roadmap, which targets 95% adult access to formal financial services across Nigeria.
EXPANDED OPERATING AUTHORITY AND DEPOSIT POWERS
The shift from payment-service-bank to national payment-bank status carries significant operational implications beyond a change in regulatory designation. National licences unlock the ability to conduct a broader range of banking activities and serve customers without geographic restriction, across states where the firms had previously operated under more constrained terms. For platforms such as OPay and PalmPay, which already count tens of millions of users, the upgrade formally extends and enshrines an operational presence that had in practice already achieved near-national scale through agent networks and mobile channels.
Moniepoint, which has developed a substantial presence in merchant payments and business banking for small and medium enterprises, is positioned to leverage the new licence to deepen its commercial banking offering across states where it previously faced regulatory limits. Kuda and Paga, which focus respectively on consumer accounts and on remittances and bill payments, similarly gain greater flexibility to compete directly with established commercial banks on deposit products and payment services in the full set of Nigerian states.
The expansion of deposit-taking authority is particularly consequential. Payment-service banks in Nigeria had been subject to caps that limited individual customer balances and, by extension, the total deposits each institution could hold. The removal of those constraints under the national licence framework gives the five firms access to a materially larger pool of customer funding, enabling them to offer more competitive savings products and strengthening their ability to fund lending and payment infrastructure.
FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS
The CBN's decision reflects its stated ambition to extend formal financial services to the large proportion of Nigerian adults who remain unbanked or rely predominantly on cash. By upgrading the licences of platforms that have already demonstrated the ability to acquire and retain millions of digital customers, the regulator is effectively deploying proven operators as agents of financial inclusion across the country, particularly in underserved states where traditional branch-based banking has historically struggled to achieve meaningful penetration.
The upgrade is also likely to intensify competitive dynamics between the newly elevated fintechs and Nigeria's conventional commercial banking sector. With national deposit-taking rights and full geographic reach, the five platforms can now market savings accounts, debit products, and comprehensive payment services across the country on broadly equal regulatory footing with established lenders. That increased competitive pressure creates fresh incentives for incumbent banks to accelerate improvements in their own digital offerings, pricing, and customer experience.