You opened the app this week and saw the notice. MonieWorld is closing its UK service. If you have been sending two or three hundred pounds a month to Lagos, this is now the thing you need to sort before your next transfer.
What is actually happening
Moniepoint is shutting down MonieWorld, the UK app it ran for sending money to Nigeria. Three separate news sources reported it on 25 and 26 August 2026: TechCabal, Business Post Nigeria, and MarketForces Africa. The company said it is putting its resources back into its main African business. MonieWorld had been running for about 14 months.
Moniepoint has not yet said when transfers will stop, and the MonieWorld website does not show a shutdown date. When apps like this close, they usually stop taking new transfers within two to six weeks. Do not wait. Move now, while the app is still working.
One extra thing the news pieces do not mention: Moniepoint’s own note says the customer base may be sold to another company rather than simply switched off. That means someone else could take over the service. Until a named buyer says it is live and properly registered to move money in the UK, treat the app as closing.
Four things to do this week
1. Move any balance in the app to your UK bank account now.
If you have money sitting in a MonieWorld wallet, withdraw it to your bank account today. Do not wait to see what happens. This is the most time-sensitive step.
2. Cancel or complete any pending or scheduled transfers.
Log in and check whether you have any scheduled transfers set up. A scheduled transfer that fires during or after a shutdown can either bounce back to your account or, less commonly, stall in transit. Neither outcome is good. If you have a regular send set up for this month, either let it complete if you are confident it will go through in the next day or two, or cancel it and use one of the apps below.
3. Save your beneficiary list before the app locks.
The addresses and account numbers of the people you send to are the thing that costs you the most friction to rebuild. Take screenshots of every saved recipient now: their full name, bank name, account number, and the sort code or routing details. These are the details you will paste into whichever app you open next. Losing them is not a disaster but it is a headache.
4. Do not open a new MonieWorld transfer this week, even if the app lets you.
A transfer that fails in transit during a shutdown can take ten to twenty business days to reverse. That is three to four weeks your recipient waits for money that is sitting in a holding account. It is not worth the risk.
Where to send instead
For a UK-to-Nigeria send of £250 to £500, three apps do the job well.
| App | £250 arrives as | £500 arrives as | Fee | Rate vs Google |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LemFi | About 470,000 naira | About 940,000 naira | £0 | At the real rate |
| Wise | About 466,000 naira | About 936,000 naira | £2.24 | At the real rate |
| Sendwave | Check the app | Check the app | £0 | Close to the real rate |
LemFi. No fee, and the rate matches Google’s. The money lands in a Nigerian bank account within minutes. If you already have LemFi installed, it is the simplest move. If you do not have it, it is worth opening: it is authorised in the UK to hold your money, the identity check takes about ten minutes on a first use, and on a 250 pound send you keep about 4,000 naira more than you would with Wise.
Wise. Fee is £2.24, shown on the screen before you confirm. Rate is the real exchange rate, the one you get if you search it on Google. The money arrives in a Nigerian bank account within minutes on most sends. Wise is the right answer if you already have it and do not want to open a new app for a £2 saving. The fee is predictable, the rate is visible, and the support is real if something goes wrong.
Sendwave. No fee, rate close to the real one. Sendwave pays directly into OPay, PalmPay and Kuda accounts as well as bank accounts. If the person you send to uses one of those, Sendwave is often the fastest option and reaches people without a traditional bank account. Check the rate in the app before you send.
One thing to ignore. Xoom (PayPal) shows up in comparison tools for sending to Nigeria. It is not the right app here. On a 300 pound send it took 2.87 percent quietly in the exchange rate on top of a £1.49 fee, delivering about 14,000 naira less than Wise on the same send. Nothing in what it offers at this size makes it the right choice.
What this means for the money you send
MonieWorld was one of the cheaper apps for sending £250 to £500 to Nigeria. From now on, it is worth opening two apps side by side for each transfer and picking the cheaper one on the day, rather than opening the same one every time out of habit. The difference on a £300 send is usually a few thousand naira. Small each time, but real over a year.
The main job this week is the beneficiary list. Once you have that saved out of MonieWorld, the next transfer takes you as long as opening a different app.
Table rates are for bank deposit to Lagos, checked on 27 August 2026 against a real exchange rate of about 1,880 naira to the pound (Wise’s live rate on 27 August 2026, and Wise’s own price comparison the same morning). LemFi charges no fee on sends to Nigeria, and its rate runs close to the real one (checked against Boki’s Nigeria guide, last fact-checked July 2026). Sendwave’s live rate was not capturable from the web on 27 August 2026; open the app or sendwave.com/en-gb for the current figure before you send. Exchange rates move daily.