By Adedapo Adesanya
AppZone, Sub-Saharan Africa’s payment infrastructure company, announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued the organization an approval in principle to operate under the Switching and Processing license category.
This will enable AppZone further expand its transaction switching and processing services currently offered to banks and fintech’s through its blockchain-based payment network, ZONE, launched in December 2021.
ZONE is the first private blockchain payment network that enables the direct flow of payments from bank to bank while empowering previously excluded financial institutions to participate.
It has been adopted by over 16 commercial banks and payment service banks in Nigeria and will further expand to other financial institutions, Fintechs and commercial banks across Africa.
Speaking about the license issuance, co-founder and CEO of AppZone, Mr Obi Emetarom, said, “We are excited about the issuance of the Switching license. We look forward to the progress it will enable for the payment and finance ecosystem.
“As a payment infrastructure company, we believe that this milestone will enable us to connect every financial store of value within Nigeria and link them to the rest of the world.”
With this new milestone, AppZone can now operate on the same level as other tier-one financial technology and private switching companies.
The switching license will enable the company directly to engage and collaborate with crucial payment system stakeholders such as the Nigeria Central Switch hosted by NIBSS and the various Card Payment Schemes.
Dipo Olowookere 
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale