PalmPay Says KudiWave Address and Account Ownership Unknown in Nigeria

PalmPay says it does not know who owns the KudiWave account at the centre of a three-quarter-billion-naira dispute. KudiWave’s answer: PalmPay’s own letters — and a photograph of its top officials at KudiWave’s office.

PalmPay, the Lagos-based mobile banking platform backed by Chinese investors, says the address and account ownership of Nigerian firm KudiWave Technologies Limited remain unknown. The claim is the latest turn in a dispute over ₦750,369,439.04 (about US$565,700, at roughly 1,327 naira to the dollar) that left KudiWave’s PalmPay business account No. 8889232516 in the early hours of 15 July 2026.

The contested debit

KudiWave’s PalmPay statement shows the funds moved at 03:38:31 on 15 July under the narration “Judicial Adjustment – Cash_Access Bank_0552 Business_Account”. The company had already gone to court: on 3 July it applied to set aside a 29 June order obtained by the Police Special Fraud Unit, and the matter was heard by Justice Ibrahim Ahmad Kala of the Federal High Court in Lagos on 13 July, with the ruling reserved.

KudiWave alleges the money was moved two days later, while that ruling was still pending — and says PalmPay had also moved funds from the account on 11 July, returning them the same day. The company has protested at PalmPay’s office and demanded the money back, The Guardian reported.

PalmPay rejects any suggestion it acted on its own. It says the 15 July transaction was executed “strictly in compliance” with the 29 June court order in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/795/2026 — IGP v. PalmPay Limited and KudiWave Technologies Limited — which directed it to disclose the balance and transfer the funds to a designated Nigeria Police Force recovery account.

The court reversal — and PalmPay’s own letter

The legal ground shifted on 22 July, when Justice Kala granted KudiWave’s application, set aside the 29 June order and directed that restrictions on the account be removed. Six days later, PalmPay wrote to the Commissioner of Police at the Special Fraud Unit acknowledging that the order had been vacated — and requesting that the Nigeria Police Force transfer the ₦750,369,439.04 (about US$565,700) from the police recovery account back to KudiWave’s PalmPay account.

That 28 July letter, seen and reported by Nairametrics, identifies “KudiWave Technologies Limited” and account No. 8889232516 by name and number. An earlier PalmPay letter of 6 July — titled “Investigation Activity” — likewise referred to KudiWave and the funds standing to its credit, noting that the account remained under strict restriction.

“Unknown” ownership versus the paper trail

Against that record, PalmPay’s current position — that KudiWave’s address and account ownership are unknown — is the sharpest point of contention. KudiWave says PalmPay maintained a dedicated team of about 30 staff handling its affairs before the dispute, and has released a photograph of what it says was a visit by three senior PalmPay officials to its Lagos office on 18 March 2026.

“Three top PalmPay officials, all Chinese with their Nigerian Police escort were physically at our Lagos office on March 18,” KudiWave said. “We therefore want to understand how the same address can now be treated as unknown.” Of the July letters, it added: “PalmPay’s own correspondence identifies KudiWave, identifies our account and asks that the ₦750.37 million (about US$566,000) be returned to that account.”

PalmPay, founded in 2019 and backed by Transsion and NetEase through their Transsnet joint venture, has not publicly squared its “unknown ownership” statement with the correspondence. The fraud investigation itself continues: the Special Fraud Unit is probing the true ownership of the account and Know-Your-Customer compliance around its opening.

Where the money actually went

A further discrepancy sits at the heart of the case. The court process referred to a designated police recovery account, but KudiWave says its account records show the funds went to an Access Bank business account. The company wants disclosure of the beneficiary account, the instruction behind the transfer and a complete record of how the money moved.

Whether the ₦750,369,439.04 (about US$565,700) has since been returned — as PalmPay itself requested on 28 July — has not been confirmed publicly. KudiWave says it is still seeking the money and answers.

Why the case matters for Nigerian fintech

The dispute puts a spotlight on Know-Your-Customer and anti-money-laundering controls in one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital finance markets. It tests how platforms should behave when police and court orders compel them to freeze and move customer funds — and what happens to customer protection when those orders collapse.

For investors watching African digital finance, the case also illustrates how law-enforcement leverage over private capital flows shapes the operating environment for mobile-money platforms, a dynamic tracked in Africa: The New Scramble. Any further ruling in the Lagos proceedings could set a precedent for police-directed freezes across the sector.

More: Nigeria news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions