The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a dramatic new directive restricting all mobile banking applications to operate on one device only per customer, effectively blocking simultaneous use across multiple phones or tablets.
Major banks including GTBank, Access, Zenith, UBA, FirstBank, and fintechs like OPay must now enforce single-device access. Customers attempting to login from a second device will face immediate blocks.
According to the new policy, No dual-device access: Same banking app cannot run on phone + tablet, Family sharing blocked: One account, one active device only, device switching required: Deregister old device before registering new one, Security driven: Targets fraud rings exploiting multi-device vulnerabilities
The sudden policy change disrupts millions who use banking apps across work phone, personal phone, and tablets. Bank customer service lines expected to crash as users scramble to comply.
CBN ordered immediate compliance across Nigeria’s banking sector. Apps will begin blocking multi-device logins within 24-48 hours, forcing mass re-registrations.
“This is CBN’s boldest digital banking crackdown since 2024 crypto restrictions,” analysts predict immediate backlash from Nigeria’s 40M+ mobile banking users now forced into single-device dependency.