By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Yellow Card Financial
Nigeria Limited has received conditional approval-in-principle from Nigeria’s
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to participate in the Commission’s
Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP), marking a significant step in
the stablecoin infrastructure provider’s regulatory engagement in one of its
founding markets.
The admission allows Yellow
Card Financial Nigeria Limited to participate in ARIP within the scope and
conditions established by the SEC. The approval applies to the company’s
admission into the programme and does not constitute approval of any specific product,
service or stablecoin offering in Nigeria.
The approval-in-principle is
also not a full licence and remains subject to Yellow Card’s continued
compliance with applicable regulatory, operational and supervisory
requirements.
Lasbery Chioma Oludimu,
Group Vice President of Operations and Managing Director of Yellow Card
Financial Nigeria Limited, welcomed the decision and said Nigeria remains one
of the company’s most important markets.
She said Yellow Card would
maintain high standards of compliance and professionalism throughout its
participation in the programme, with customer protection and regulatory
compliance remaining central to its operations.
Yellow Card first registered
an African entity in Nigeria in 2019 and has since established the country as a
major operational hub, with its largest team and several members of its senior
leadership based there.
The company now operates in
more than 60 global markets and works with major financial and payments
institutions, including Visa, Mastercard, Western Union and MoneyGram.
Yellow Card Co-Founder and
Chief Executive Officer Chris Maurice said the company’s objective is to build
stablecoin infrastructure globally while maintaining high compliance standards
in every market where it operates.
He described the admission
into ARIP as an important step in the company’s ongoing engagement with
Nigeria’s regulator and said Yellow Card would continue working with the SEC as
it progresses through the programme.
The announcement follows
Yellow Card’s recent $40 million strategic funding round, which brings the
company’s total funding to more than $120 million as it expands its stablecoin
infrastructure business globally.
