Cellulant, an African payments company, has exited the Nigerian mobile money sector to focus on delivering payment solutions to businesses, after its license was revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The CBN revoked Cellulant’s mobile money license due to the payments company’s decision to cease operations under the license.
Founded in 2002 as a music streaming platform, Cellulant has gone on to rebrand to a fintech company offering services including, digital payments and managing an ecosystem of retailers, merchants, banks, mobile network operators, governments, and international development partners.
“The regulator did not revoke the license as a result of infractions or any breach. The CBN succeeded in gazetting this request in December 2023, occasioned by the time it took them to conclude the process of revoking the mobile money license as requested by Cellulant,” Cellulant said.
The company added that their decision to shift to offering payment solutions has been on “as far back as 2021” leading to obtaining a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license from the CBN, which has been granted and is now operational.
The company operates physically across 18 African countries claiming to offer more than 154 payment options in 34 countries, and connecting 220 million users to a single inclusive network, enabling interoperability.
