On today's episode of the Techpoint Africa Podcast, our journalists give insights into some of the hottest stories in African tech this week.
First, they discuss the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and it's push to combat fraud and issues with cryptocurrency use in the country.
On April 29, 2024, the CBN directed Moniepoint, OPay, Kuda Bank, and Palmpay to restrict new account openings.
3 days before, on April 26, new broke of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) probing 1,146 bank accounts linked to unauthorised forex transactions and their freezing to prevent further illegal activity.
Then in May, the Corporate Affairs Commission issued a directive mandating all Point of Sale (PoS) agents to register their businesses by July 7 or risk shut down.
There's been a lot of talk around the legality of some of these actions and what it means for these fintechs in terms of getting new sign ups and losing PoS agents.
Did you know? In 2012, the volume of Point of Sale (POS) transactions in Nigeria was nearly 2.6 million, valued at ₦48 billion. As of 2022, it had grown to nearly four billion transactions worth ₦41 trillion.
Chimgozirim believes this also affects fundraising chances for them and this could have been handled better.
For our second story, we discuss 16-month salary delay claims at Bloc.
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Benita Anuforo was contacted by Banking as a Service startup, Bloc in October 2022 to handle compliance for the fintech. She agreed and started work in November 2022.
"Discussions about slashing salaries by 40% came up two weeks after I started working for the company," she told Techpoint Africa during a phone conversation."
"It was either that or the company went under."
According to Anuforo, the company promised that the 40% of their salaries that were withheld from January 2023 to March 2023 due to a 60% salary slash would be paid in April.
We discuss whether this could be wage theft, how employees can protect themselves, among things.
You can catch up on the conversation on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also send your questions and observations to podcast@techpoint.africa or share your thoughts using the hashtag #TechpointAfricaPodcast.
