Plain answers to the two questions every careful customer should ask: who actually holds and moves my money, and what exactly does tradeNAIRA do? Short version — tradeNAIRA is the interface and your support team; the payment service itself is provided by regulated partners. Here’s the full picture.
When you use any tradeNAIRA service, two kinds of company are involved — and it matters that you know which is which.
tradeNAIRA supplies the customer interface and support around your payment — we are not the payment service provider.
The payment service itself — holding, converting and moving money — is provided by licensed, regulated payment companies under their own authorisations.
Every corridor we serve pairs a licensed provider on the Nigerian side with an authorised institution on the foreign side.
Moniepoint Microfinance Bank Limited, authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (licensed February 2022) with deposits insured by the NDIC, together with TeamApt Limited, a CBN-licensed Switch and Processor. An MFB licence covers accounts, payments and domestic transfers — so this partner powers the naira side of every service.
What this does for you: naira collection, and disbursement inside Nigeria — milestone payouts to surveyors, lawyers and contractors, and local settlement — through a CBN-supervised, NDIC-insured institution.
Tayrex Exchange Pty Ltd (ABN 47 621 601 698), an Australian remittance company stating AUSTRAC regulation. This would open an AUD corridor — Nigerians in Australia paying bills, tuition and property milestones back home. Registration is being confirmed on AUSTRAC’s public Remittance Sector Register before any go-live.
What this would do for you: AUD collection and remittance for customers in Australia — a corridor we’ll switch on only once verification completes.
UK-bound payments — bills, tuition, fees — require a payment institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority with bill-payment capability, appearing on the FCA Financial Services Register. This partner is still being selected; a UK company registration alone is not an FCA authorisation, and we will only name a partner here once its FCA reference number is verifiable.
straitPay is a brand and technology platform, not a licence holder — its own site states it does not hold money-transmission, payment-institution or e-money licences, with regulated activities carried out by partner entities. If we use it, it would sit alongside tradeNAIRA as connectivity and KYC/AML workflow tooling — and the licensed entities actually moving money would be named on this page in their own right.
What this means for you: nothing changes about who holds your funds — a technology vendor never appears in your customer terms as the payment service provider.
Under our partner agreements, every responsibility below is expressly assigned. This table shows how they sit; the customer terms for your corridor state the allocation that applies to your payment.
| Responsibility | Who handles it |
|---|---|
| Customer due diligence (identity checks) | REGULATED PARTNER Verifies your identity under their licence obligations; tradeNAIRA collects documents you submit and passes them securely. |
| Source-of-funds checks | REGULATED PARTNER Conducted by the partner where required, particularly for larger payments such as tuition and property disbursements. |
| Sanctions screening | REGULATED PARTNER All parties and payments screened by the partner before execution. |
| FX conversion | REGULATED PARTNER Converted by the partner at the all-in rate you approved in your quote. |
| Safeguarding of customer funds | REGULATED PARTNER Customer funds are held by the regulated partner under the safeguarding rules of their licence — never in tradeNAIRA’s own accounts. |
| Payment execution | REGULATED PARTNER Executed by the partner to the verified recipient, with your reference attached. |
| Failed & duplicated payments | REGULATED PARTNER TRADENAIRA Resolved by the partner; tradeNAIRA tracks it, chases it and keeps you informed on WhatsApp. |
| Complaints | TRADENAIRA REGULATED PARTNER Raise anything with us first — we resolve what is ours and escalate payment-service complaints into the partner’s regulated complaints process, with their contact details provided in your terms. |
| Refunds | REGULATED PARTNER TRADENAIRA Processed by the partner; tradeNAIRA initiates and coordinates on your behalf. |
| Chargebacks | REGULATED PARTNER Handled by the partner under the applicable card or payment scheme rules. |
| Data protection | TRADENAIRA REGULATED PARTNER Each company is responsible for the personal data it processes, in the roles set out in your terms and our data-processing agreements (NDPA in Nigeria, UK GDPR for UK processing). |
| Regulatory reporting | REGULATED PARTNER Made by the partner to its regulators as their licences require. |
However you use tradeNAIRA — a subscription, a school’s tuition, a family bill, a property milestone — the terms you accept before paying make the roles explicit, in words to this effect:
“The payment service for this transaction is provided by [named regulated partner], authorised and supervised under its licence. tradeNAIRA Limited supplies the customer interface, verification workflow and customer support, and is not the provider of the payment service.”
If anything about this is unclear before you pay, ask us on WhatsApp — an unclear answer about who holds your money is a reason not to send it, with us or with anyone.
