Licensing: Investors demand refund of N100.35m held by CBN for 15 months

Promoters of the proposed Coin Finance Company Ltd have appealed to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intervene in the recovery of N100.35 million deposited with the apex bank for a Finance House licence more than 15 months ago, alleging that repeated requests for a refund have yielded no result.

The investors said the continued retention of their funds, despite the suspension of new Finance House licensing applications by the CBN, had frustrated their plans to establish a financial institution to support small businesses and grassroots entrepreneurs.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the promoters’ representative, Christopher Itua, said the investors had exhausted several administrative channels in their efforts to recover the money, warning that they might be compelled to pursue legal remedies if the matter remained unresolved.

According to him, the promoters paid N100 million as capital deposit, N100,000 as application fee and N250,000 as licensing fee on July 16, 2025, bringing the total amount deposited with the CBN to N100.35 million.

However, three months after making the payments, the applicants were reportedly informed by CBN officials in October 2025 that the processing of new Finance House licence applications had been suspended until further notice.

Itua said the development prompted him to write to the bank’s Department of Financial Policy and Regulation on October 15, 2025, requesting the immediate return of the deposited funds and applicable interest.

When the request failed to produce a refund, the investors petitioned the CBN Consumer Protection Department on May 18, 2026, and followed up with a reminder on July 7, but said neither intervention had yielded a definite repayment schedule.

“It has now been over 14 months since the CBN took possession of our capital,” Itua lamented in his latest appeal to the CBN Governor.

He argued that the continued withholding of the funds was particularly troubling because the proposed Finance House was conceived to bridge the financing gap confronting small businesses and entrepreneurs operating at the grassroots.

“The Finance House is meant to boost grassroots empowerment, a sector that is very important to strengthening the micro economy,” he said.

Expressing concern over the limited access to institutional financing among small businesses, Itua maintained that improvements in Nigeria’s broader economic indicators would achieve little without corresponding support for productive activities at the grassroots.

“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 explained that the investors had committed substantial resources to establishing the proposed institution in the expectation that the licensing process would proceed, only for their plans to be disrupted by the suspension of applications and the subsequent delay in recovering their capital.

According to him, the failure to return the funds has denied the promoters the opportunity to redirect their investment into other productive ventures at a time when access to capital remains a major challenge for businesses.

“The prolonged silence and structural failure to return capital deposits directly undermines the Federal Government’s ease-of-doing-business initiatives,” Itua declared.

He said the investors were not merely demanding the return of their principal investment but also accrued interest covering the entire period the money had remained with the CBN.

The promoters are seeking interest calculated from July 16, 2025, when the funds were deposited, until the actual date of repayment.

Itua disclosed that payment receipts, transaction records and copies of previous correspondence had been submitted to the relevant CBN departments to substantiate the investors’ claims.

He appealed to the CBN Governor to personally intervene in the matter and ensure that the applicants were not further disadvantaged by an administrative decision that had effectively stalled their proposed business.

While expressing a preference for an amicable resolution, the investors warned that continued inaction could leave them with no alternative but to explore further administrative and legal options to recover their funds.

They insisted that the immediate refund of the N100.35 million, together with applicable accrued interest, would resolve the dispute and enable them to reconsider their investment plans.

The investors’ request remains unresolved, according to their account, while the CBN’s position on the refund, the interest claim and the timeline for repayment was not contained in the statement.