Following stern orders from the Central Bank of Ghana, Lemfi, a Fintech startup has suspended its operations in the country. 

Lemfi is one of the startups that made it to the list of startups that were able to raise money this year, 2023. The fintech business builds products that allow people to send and receive money in about 20 countries including Nigeria and this means that users can open a global account (say, naira, dollar or pounds account). 

Why is Lemfi closing down in Ghana? 

According to the management of the Central Bank of Ghana, LemFi was operating without proper approval and because of this, all operations must cease. The implication of this is that users will not be able to send money into or receive money from Ghana. "We regret to inform you we will be suspending all services to Ghana. As a result, you will be unable to send money to banks and mobile money banks in Ghana. We recognize that this change will bring about some inconvenience and we sincerely apologize." Also, this implies that Nigerians who use LemFi to send and receive money from Ghana will no longer be able to. 

The decision had to be made in time because the Foreign Exchange Act in Ghana enables authorities to impose fines on unapproved companies and even include the potential for imprisonment as a penalty.

However, from what was heard from an insider, Ghana operations may still come back, but this must be after they have involved Ghanaian regulators, just like they did in Nigeria before obtaining an International Money Transfer License (IMTO).

Reactions 

After issuing this release on the latest development, several users have taken out time to air their opinions and ask questions. 

An X user quoting the tweet made by LemFi, called out the CEO, Ridwan Olalere saying; 

"@ridwan_olalere  do you intend on cutting all your operations to Ghana indefinitely? Your PSA isn’t quite clear here." 

Another X user said; 

"Wow, this is wild so the rumors are true??"

And, yet another X user; 

"African governments are always disrupting businesses then complain about poverty." 

LemFi in the public service announcement expressed gratitude to its customers and assured them that they would be the first to know if anything changes. 

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