BY EMEKA EJERE
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has added 10 other firms to to the existing 47 licensed International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) in the country.
Among the newly licensed IMTOs are Swift Payment, Direkt Wire UK Limited, Gabtrans UK Limited (all United Kingdom-based) and seven others from Australia, the United States of America and Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the apex bank in a document tagged ‘Updated list of International Money Transfer Operators in Nigeria as of April 01, 2021, shared via its website.
The full list is as follows:
- GDM TRANSFER PTY LIMITED
- INNOVATE 1 PAY LIMITED
- PAYSEND PLC
- SANAA CAPITAL LLC (MONEY4 DIASPORA SERVICES LLCS)
- SWIFT PAYMENT LIMITED
- TRANSFER CORP LIMITED / VFD GROUP
- WI-PAY GLOBAL LLC
- GABTRANS UK LIMITED in partnership with MONEYTO LIMITED
- DIREKT WIRE UK LIMITED
- COMET TRADING NIGERIA LIMITED
Recall that the CBN had earlier listed only 47 IMTOs as licensed operators, including Flutterwave Technology, Paypal Inc, Western Union, e-Tranzact Limited, Interswitch Limited, Moneygram, and Cashpoint Limited among others.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, recently said that weekly diaspora remittances rose from $5m to $30. He noted that the initiatives introduced by the CBN to boost foreign exchange in the country were yielding results.
The apex bank also introduced a rebate of N5 for every $1 of fund remitted to Nigeria through IMTOs in its forex policy.