'Kindly note' - Opay reacts to viral video showing weak KYC, account impersonation

The digital payment platform Opay Digital Services has responded to the viral video of customers displaying how users can open an account using other people's bank account numbers.

According to reports, during the onboarding process on the platform, people were allegedly allowed to impersonate others by opening accounts in their names.

In response to its inquiry, Nairametrics reports that the payment company said a glitch was responsible for the impersonation and that the issue has been addressed.

The company told the news outlet that it introduced bank account verification during the onboarding to aid users in easily authenticating their BVNs, stating that it removed the feature after discovering the loophole.

The firm's Head of Marketing, Kunle Adeyemi, said in a message that the identification method of the account onboarding process was added because BVN authorizes every bank account.

It stated that KYC verification can be done directly by NIBSS or NIMC or indirectly via bank account verification.

Opay said: "The observation from the video was, therefore, a result of an exploited technical glitch, which has now been addressed. To clarify, we have taken down the Bank Account Verification feature, and only BVN & NIN identification are now listed on the app as verification tools."

In October 2023, Opay addressed similar concerns regarding allegations of unauthorized account openings, Legit.ng reported.

The complaints from Nigerians on social media were that the digital payment platform uses their phone number to open accounts without permission.

He explained that a check was done on those raising complaints and revealed that they opened accounts three to four years ago but had since forgotten about them.

Adeyemi explained that the OPay wallet could only be opened through the CBN-established registration process, which requires the input of an OTP authentication (one-time password) from the user's phone to proceed.