Afrigather The Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the cellular cash licence of Cellulant Nigeria, a subsidiary of certainly one of Africa’s oldest fintech corporations Cellulant Company, based on a letter addressed to the corporate and seen by TechCabal.
The revocation took impact on December 6, 2023.
Cellulant is due to this fact leaving the consumer-facing cellular cash market to concentrate on offering cost providers to companies. The corporate advised TechCabal by way of e-mail that it determined to exit the cellular cash area and concentrate on offering options “way back to 2021”. This knowledgeable its procurement of a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) licence from the CBN, which has been issued and is now operational.
“The regulator didn’t revoke the licence because of infractions or any breach. The CBN succeeded in gazetting this request in December 2023, occasioned by the point it took them to conclude the method of revoking the cellular cash license as requested by Cellulant,” Cellulant mentioned within the e-mail.
The CBN within the aforementioned letter addressed to Cellulant mentioned it was revoking Cellulant’s cellular cash licence, “following [Cellulant’s] choice to discontinue working the licence”.
The corporate, which raised $54.5 million in three funding rounds between 2014 and 2018 from buyers like The Rise Fund, has hit a rough patch lately. After an out-of-court settlement of a long-drawn leadership tussle with its former co-founder, Bolaji Akinboro, Cellulant has struggled to stabilise its operations and lift new funding.
In 2023, Cellulant noticed the necessity to restructure its enterprise, together with lowering the headcount by 20% in August. In December, the company’s CEO Akshay Grover, stepped down citing personal reasons. That exit additionally led to a different spherical of layoffs within the firm and the announcement of an performing CEO.
