Eyowo customer facing eviction after savings trapped

A customer of Eyowo, a digital bank in Nigeria, whose license was recently revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has expressed her distress regarding the funds she saved with the company. She has voiced her concerns, stating that she faces the prospect of homelessness within the next two weeks if Eyowo does not release her money.

Chikamso, the customer in question, made these remarks during a Twitter session organized by Eyowo to provide updates to its customers regarding their efforts to regain their operational license from the CBN. She explained that she had been diligently saving money on the app for her rent, and now that her rent is due, she is unable to withdraw the necessary funds.

• “I just really need to know when this is going to be fixed and when I can access my money because I’m about to be homeless. I put my savings for my rent in there and I need this fixed in a week or two. If not, I don’t know where I’m going to be sleeping,” she said

Startup plan stalled

For another Eyowo customer identified as Edwin, his plans to save up to fund his startup idea have been stalled by the revocation of the company’s licence and the restriction of access to customers’ funds. Edwin also lamented that the company has kept on assuring its customers over the past two months and yet there was no solution in sight.

• “I’m quite disappointed at how it has been handled to this point. Yes, we’re all waiting for the resolution of the licence issue, but there are things that people need money for. I’ve been saving for like three years now. All my savings since I started working has been in Eyowo and at this point, I do not have any savings again. I’m only living on my salary I cannot do things I want to do.
• “I’m trying to create a startup to solve problems and I say look, let me save this amount of money. I want to pay people now to build my business, but I can’t. I just needed the money to invest in my business now so that I could move ahead. Everybody wants to move ahead in their life or in their career. Every meeting we have had, you always say ‘we are getting there, we are getting there’ yet we are yet to get our money,” he said.

Close to resolution

While apologizing to the customers for all the inconvenience, the Co-founder and CEO of Eyowo, Yomi Adedeji, said the company is now close to resolving its issues with the CBN. He, however, said he would not want to give any specific date for when customers could resume normal activities on their accounts in order not to raise their hopes.

• “Essentially what I’m trying to say is that we are at the tail end of what we need to do to get ourselves back up. However, our regulators and those who are like our regulators, we do not have any complete control over their bureaucratic process, we have no control over the approval process internally. And we can only just wait and follow it through,” he said.

In case you missed it

The CBN had on March 23, 2023, withdrawn the microfinance licence of Eyowo, and 46 other companies. The apex bank followed with a list of another 132 Microfinance Banks, Finance Companies, and Mortgage Banks, whose licences were also revoked.

Since then, customers of the digital bank have not been able to withdraw or transfer their money out of their accounts as Eyowo was disconnected from other banks.

According to the apex bank, the licences of the banks were revoked because they had either remained inactive, insolvent, failed to render returns, closed shop, or ceased to carry on the type of banking business for which they were licensed for more than six (6) months. The bank said this is in contravention of the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), 2020, and the Revised Regulatory and Supervisory Guidelines for Microfinance Banks in Nigeria.

The CBN said the various actions taken by the Regulatory Authority to halt their persistent failure to carry on business had failed, hence the decision to revoke their licence.