REGULATION | Nigerian Fintech, Vella Finance, to Terminate Crypto Services Due to Compliance, Shifts Focus to SME Banking
Vella Finance is discontinuing its cryptocurrency-related services and shifting its focus towards small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking.
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According to local reports, the fintech company informed its users and subscribers via email that all crypto-based services would be terminated on October 30 2023.
Vella, which was launched in 2021, initially aimed to facilitate cryptocurrency spending in Africa and offer businesses the infrastructure needed to collect payments on a global scale.
While already having products catering to small businesses, the fintech is discontinuing all its cryptocurrency-related operations, including:
Trading
Deposits
Wallets
Fiat-to-crypto swaps
and other crypto services.
The company is now concentrating on delivering comprehensive business solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.
“We’re going fully into SME Banking. Banking requires playing in regulatory confines. We already serve businesses from the onset backed by user and transactional data. It just makes sense to offer an end-to-end banking system to better serve them. It’s a business decision; there’s no way we will run banking and crypto together,” said Tolu Adedayo, co-founder of Vella.
One of Vella’s most notable products, Launch by Vella, offers small businesses the opportunity to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission for a fee of N18,000 ($14). The decision to shift focus was also motivated by a commitment to meet the specific needs of SMEs.
According to Adebayo, Vella helps informal SMES by giving them instant business bank accounts, and providing them with payment infrastructure to enable payment collections locally on their websites/online stores. Vella also allows them to create invoices and payment links for free.
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Alongside these existing features, the fintech will launch new features in its new business model to cater to these needs.
“We will be announcing new features in the coming weeks that solidify our full entrance into the business banking space,” Adedayo added.
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