Investors behind the proposed Coin Finance Company Ltd have demanded a refund of N100.35m paid to the Central Bank of Nigeria for a finance house licence, alongside applicable interest, following the suspension of new licence applications.
The promoter’s representative, Mr Christopher Itua, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday, noting that the funds had remained with the apex bank for about 15 months without progress towards establishing the proposed institution.
According to the investors, the payment comprised N100m as a capital deposit, N100,000 as an application fee and N250,000 as a licensing fee. The payments were made on 16 July 2025, bringing the total to N100.35m.
The payment was made to fulfil the licensing requirements for the proposed Coin Finance Company Ltd to operate as a finance house.
However, Itua said CBN officials informed the promoters in October 2025 that the processing of new finance house licence applications had been suspended until further notice.
Following the suspension, Itua said he wrote to the CBN’s Department of Financial Policy and Regulation on 15 October 2025, requesting a refund of the funds, alongside applicable interest.
The promoters subsequently petitioned the CBN’s Consumer Protection Department on 18 May 2026 and sent a follow-up letter on 7 July. However, they said they had yet to receive a timeline for the refund or any substantive update on the matter.
“It has now been over 14 months since the CBN took possession of our capital,” Itua said in his latest appeal to the CBN Governor.
Itua said the proposed finance house was intended to bridge the financing gap at the grassroots level and support economic activities among micro-level businesses.
“The Finance House is meant to boost grassroots empowerment, a sector that is very important to strengthening the micro economy,” he said.
Itua said the shortage of financial institutions catering to small businesses and grassroots entrepreneurs remained a major constraint, despite improvements in the broader macroeconomic environment.
“The macro is doing well, but the micro is not. This is the missing link because there are not enough institutions to power that sector,” he said.
He added that the prolonged retention of the funds had stalled the promoters’ plans to establish the finance house and provide financial support to businesses and individuals at the grassroots level.
The investors are also demanding that the CBN calculate and pay applicable interest on the N100.35m from 16 July 2025, when the funds were deposited, until the date the money is refunded.
“The prolonged silence and structural failure to return capital deposits directly undermines the Federal Government’s ease-of-doing-business initiatives,” Itua said.
