Afrigather OPay has denied claims on social media that the fintech opened accounts for individuals with out their consent.
The fintech startup OPay has denied claims that it opened accounts for purchasers with out their consent following an inner investigation into the matter, which started on Tuesday. The fintech started its inquiry after clients on social media mentioned their cellphone numbers had been linked to OPay accounts that they didn’t open. The Nigerian Client Safety Fee mentioned it started investigating the matter this week. Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission informed TechCabal that OPay has been served an investigation discover.
“Some 24 hours in the past, we acquired data that there have been lively accounts/wallets on our OPay app, which the homeowners alleged had been created with out their data and consent,” mentioned Adekunle Adeyemi, the corporate’s Head of Advertising and marketing. “Based mostly on our investigation, we found that these accounts had been certainly opened by the homeowners at totally different factors, however typically between 2019/2020.”
The allegations across the accounts started on the social media platform X. “I simply checked now, and I’ve an Opay account, similar with each member of my household,” wrote one X consumer. “None of us has ever opened an Opay account. How’s this even authorized?” The tweet went viral, and extra individuals claimed that though they’d by no means opened OPay accounts, in addition they discovered that their cellphone numbers had been linked to current OPay wallets. 5 individuals informed TechCabal that in addition they realised this week that they’ve OPay accounts.
“At the very least 4 of the complaints acquired by way of social media have been checked, and all 4 of them have been contacted to resolve the considerations raised,” OPay mentioned in its assertion to TechCabal. “It is usually essential to notice that OPay has by no means created nor does it function any account on behalf of any particular person.”
One working principle is that clients could have opened these accounts in 2019 and 2020 to make use of OPay’s verticals on the time, akin to ORide, OFood or OKash–OPay’s wallets powered all of these verticals and have since been shut down. However a minimum of two customers insist they by no means used any of OPay’s providers. “We wish to encourage any particular person with comparable considerations to contact us by way of any of our official channels,” mentioned OPay.
Regardless of OPay’s denial, there are nonetheless questions
“The core is whether or not customers had been comprehensively knowledgeable and conscious that their cellphone numbers could possibly be used to arrange a checking account,” mentioned Ridwan Oloyede, a knowledge privateness skilled. “Clear communication is pivotal, and it’s important to scrutinise the preliminary communication and onboarding processes to know if customers had been adequately knowledgeable about such practices.”
OPay insists that its wallets can solely be opened by way of the CBN-established registration course of, which requires the enter of an OTP authentication from the consumer’s cellphone to proceed. Knowledge safety legal guidelines in Nigeria mandate organisations to obviously articulate their lawful foundation for processing consumer information.
“We’ve served them discover of investigation already, and it will likely be good to know their place,” mentioned a authorized enforcement lead for NDPC. “We have already got complaints backed by proof so it’s for them [OPay] to disprove the proof if they’ve credible proof.”
*It is a creating story
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