CBN revokes 46–47 microfinance bank licences in Nigeria's biggest MFB reset
Nigeria's Central Bank has cancelled 46 microfinance bank licences, formally citing five regulatory grounds for the mass revocation. Sycamore has confirmed that an MFB it acquired is among those affected, stating the action clouds its planned entry into deposit banking. The sweep represents the most significant regulatory reset of Nigeria's digital lending and microfinance sector on record.
CBN Purge: the compliance clock has started for every MFB holding a licence it can't use
The Sycamore detail is the one to sit with.
Their revoked licence was a shell — absorbed in an acquisition and already superseded. The CBN didn't catch an active bad actor; it caught a drawer that hadn't been tidied. And yet the headline still landed as a casualty, still clouded a deposit banking plan, still cost time and communication.
If the CBN is now actively cross-checking who holds a licence against who is actually operating under it, the cost of keeping a redundant MFB licence as a regulatory placeholder just went up sharply. That's the live signal for every founder sitting on an MFB they acquired and haven't fully activated.
3 sources
- Sycamore Says CBN Revocation Hits Acquired MFB, Clouds Deposit Banking Plans · innovation-village.com · T2
- Here are the top CBN directives that shaped Nigeria’s financial sector in the first half of 2026 · technext24.com · T2
- CBN cancels 46 microfinance bank licences, lists 5 grounds · innovation-village.com · T2