The recent revelation of a massive cyberattack on CinetPay, an Ivorian payment processor, has sent ripples through the West African financial ecosystem, highlighting critical vulnerabilities in cross-border payment settlements. The breach, which occurred in September 2025, has left the fintech owing over $1 million to various merchants and partners, including prominent Nigerian entities. For the Nigerian economy, this incident serves as a stark reminder of the systemic risks inherent in regional fintech integration, where a security failure in one jurisdiction can directly impair the liquidity and operational stability of Nigerian financial service providers.
At the heart of the crisis is a significant liquidity bottleneck affecting DPay, a Nigerian payment processor that relied on CinetPay to facilitate transactions across Francophone West Africa. Following a partnership established in late 2024, CinetPay reportedly began delaying settlements by August 2025, eventually accumulating a debt of approximately $1.2 million (CFA 655 million). This financial shortfall has restricted DPay’s access to essential working capital, directly impacting its ability to serve its Nigerian client base and manage domestic obligations.
The economic consequences of such disruptions are far-reaching. In Nigeria’s rapidly evolving tech and banking sectors, payment processors act as the primary connective tissue for trade. When settlement cycles are broken due to “cyber fraud incidents”—as described by CinetPay CEO Daniel Dindji—the resulting cash flow stagnation can stifle the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that depend on timely remittances to fund daily operations. Furthermore, the incident underscores a “textbook laundering tactic” used by the attackers, who exploited internal limits to funnel funds into mobile money accounts across multiple borders before detection.
This breach occurred just as CinetPay received a prestigious license from the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), a move intended to enforce higher standards of anti-fraud and technical resilience. The failure of these safeguards raises urgent questions for Nigerian regulators and fiscal policymakers regarding the oversight of cross-border fintech partnerships. As Nigeria seeks to deepen its regional trade ties through digital platforms, the safety of the “financial rails” connecting Lagos to Abidjan and Dakar becomes a matter of national economic security.
The situation also brings to light the legal and reputational risks facing Nigerian firms operating in the regional market. DPay has already issued multiple legal notices in an attempt to recover the $1.2 million in processed transactions acknowledged by CinetPay. However, the continued lack of remittance nearly five months after the initial breach suggests that legal recourse may be a slow and arduous process, further straining the balance sheets of the affected Nigerian companies.
Looking forward, the CinetPay crisis will likely prompt a re-evaluation of risk management protocols among Nigerian fintech leaders. The reliance on a single regional partner for cross-border settlements now appears to be a high-stakes gamble that requires more robust diversification and real-time monitoring of partner liquidity. As the BCEAO and other regional bodies tighten supervision, the emphasis must shift from mere transaction volume to the absolute resilience of the underlying infrastructure that powers the West African digital economy.
