By Uche Amunike
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has indicated its intention to question OPay Nigeria over its unauthorized account allegations by Nigerians.
Speaking while responding to allegations made by Nigerians on X, that OPay was indeed opening unauthorized accounts for people, the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Babatunde Irukera, made this disclosure.
His tweet: ‘OPAY is inbound to @fccpcnigeria to address and explain this and other anomalies consumers have identified in the last few days. An update will be forthcoming.’
In an earlier response to another of such tweets, the FCCPC boss stated that OPay had been asked to come in and explain what had been a few days of discrepancies.
OPay Nigeria is a licensed mobile money operator which makes use of customers’ mobile numbers as their account numbers. They recently gained ground during Nigeria’s cash crunch, due to the reliability of its services. At that point, when traditional banks failed Nigerians.
All efforts made by this reporter to reach Irukera to confirm if OPay Nigeria had responded to the Commission’s call, proved abortive. In confirmed reports, OPay Nigeria’s Head of Marketing, Kunkle Adeyemi, reacted to these allegations, stating that some of the affected individuals might have had dealings with OPay in the past.
His words: ‘We saw these tweets yesterday and internally we are currently reviewing what transpired as we ensure that all wallet holders are adequately registered. Some people might have had interactions with the platform at one point or the other, it’s important that I get feedback internally based on our investigation before we respond.’
So many netizens. Have complained that they have accounts with OPay Nigeria, even though they do not remember ever opening one. An X user, @hackSultan tweeted: ‘I just checked now and somehow, I have an OPay account, same with every member of my family. None of us has ever opened an OPay account. How’s this even legal?’
Other netizens have also complained by raising alarm about this issue, stating that they have never used the services of the Fintech. An ex user, @Cohannnnn tweeted: ‘This is ridiculous. Everyone has an OPay account opened for them.’
Another user, @Busayo Otebata, tweeted: ‘I don’t have an account with OPay and I’ve never opened it created anything that has to do with Opay and I can see my name on their banking app.’
OPay, has however reacted to a particular alleged video that made the rounds on social media platforms concerning illegal activities on some OPay Agent accounts. They stated that the incident in the viral video happened about two years ago and that the relevant stakeholders took the right actions and already dealt with the situation.
A statement released by the Fintech read: ‘Our attention has been drawn to a certain old video that resurfaced on some social media platforms regarding alleged fraudulent activities on some OPay Agent accounts.’
‘We wish to state that the allegations are dated and have been resolved in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders. We implore our customers and the general public to ignore and disregard the video and its content. We remain committed to protecting our users from any fraudulent activity or scam as customer data protection is our priority.’
They assured that they had taken certain steps to protect their customer accounts and data, by constantly upgrading their security system and adding extra layers of security measures like BVN verification, as well as Face ID verification., apart from providing 24-hour customer service to help customers resolve any issues that bother them. They assured their customers not to be worried about losing their money as they were safe in their wallets.
