On November 18, 2025, Yellow Card Financial’s leadership took to the global stage via Bloomberg, touting a polished narrative: “Dollar barriers boost stablecoins.” The article paints a picture of a forward-thinking fintech giant solving cross-border payment friction for Africans.
But back home in Nigeria, the reality is starkly different. While their CEO speaks of “removing barriers” in high-rise boardrooms, their Nigerian retail users are facing the ultimate barrier: The inability to access their own refunds without sacrificing their data privacy.
This report is a direct fact-check of Yellow Card’s recent media blitz, contrasting their corporate talking points with the chaotic reality of their retail “sunset.”
In recent press releases, Yellow Card claims to be the solution to Africa’s payment friction. They argue that traditional banking rails are too slow and that stablecoins offer a “seamless” alternative for moving value.
If Yellow Card is the champion of seamless payments, why are they unable to execute a simple refund to a valid Nigerian bank account?
- Users with verified, Tier-3 commercial bank accounts (Wema, GTB, Zenith) are seeing their refunds fail on Yellow Card’s platform.
- Instead of fixing the rail, Yellow Card unilaterally diverts funds to Paga, a mobile money operator that many users do not use.
- This is not “seamless.” This is forced friction. By trapping user funds in unsolicited mobile wallets, Yellow Card has created a new barrier, forcing users to download new apps, perform new KYC, and navigate new ecosystems just to retrieve money that was already theirs.
The Bloomberg narrative suggests Yellow Card is pivoting to become an “infrastructure” provider for other businesses. They want to be the backend rail that powers African fintech.
The Reality on the Ground. An “infrastructure” company must, by definition, have robust data handling capabilities. Yet, evidence gathered by Cyber Smart Empire shows a crumbling backend.
- The “Eded” Leak: Transaction receipts reveal that Yellow Card is relying on an obscure third-party aggregator, “Eded Technologies,” to settle retail debts.
- The Question: If Yellow Card is a “world-class infrastructure provider,” why do they need a middleman like Eded Technologies to send a simple bank transfer?
- The Implication: It suggests that Yellow Card’s own direct banking relationships in Nigeria may be severed or strained, forcing them to use “shadow rails” to move money out before the December 31st deadline.
In early 2024, Yellow Card released a glossy report praising Nigeria and Kenya for leading the charge in “Data Privacy Enforcement.” They positioned themselves as thought leaders in regulatory compliance.
The same company that published a whitepaper on compliance is now allegedly violating the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) in its exit strategy.
- Sharing user phone numbers with Eded Technologies without consent constitutes a “Data Breach by Unauthorized Disclosure.”
- Users have received funding notifications from Eded Technologies, an entity they have no contract with.
- Yellow Card’s “Thought Leadership” is a facade. When convenient, they champion privacy. When inconvenient (like during a messy exit), they appear to discard it entirely.
The Bloomberg article focuses heavily on Stablecoins (USDT/USDC) as the savior of the African economy. This is a strategic distraction.
By focusing the conversation on “The Dollar” and “Macroeconomics,” Yellow Card diverts attention from the operational failures of their retail app. They want the world to look at the “Big Picture” so nobody notices the “Small Picture”: The N20,000 refunds trapped in shadow wallets.
To the Investors reading Bloomberg. You are buying into a narrative of growth. But you should be asking about Liability.
- How many thousands of “Shadow Wallets” has Yellow Card created in Nigeria?
- What is the potential regulatory fine from the NDPC for these unauthorized accounts?
- Is the “B2B Pivot” actually a “Regulatory Flight”?
A Challenge to Yellow Card
If you truly believe in “removing barriers,” we challenge you to:
- Publish the list of all third-party aggregators (like Eded Technologies) you are currently using to process refunds.
- Explain publicly why the withdrawal method users linked to their accounts on the app were not successful.
- Commit to a “Data Purge” audit, ensuring that Eded Technologies deletes the phone numbers of every user they paid on your behalf.
Until then, your press releases are just noise. The signal is in the screenshots of your unhappy users.
