Paga’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tayo Oviosu, has shrugged off competition in the Nigerian fintech space, saying that it is healthy for for business.
Oviosu disclosed this to newsmen, yesterday, during a media briefing, in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary. He stated that even though the industry is quite competitive, Paga leverages the competition to deliver value to its customers.
“We have 22 major competitors already and I am aware that we still have more coming. Irrespective of how stiff the market space is, Paga is committed to being the role model for others at all times.”
His take on telcos – Oviosu went further to state that the telcos are not major competitors for fintechs sector. He also argued that it is a fallacy to think that “because I am a telco, I am the best person to run a service that runs on data network”.
Secret to the company’s success – The CEO, however, admitted that fintech is a very difficult business that goes beyond just having phone numbers.
When asked how Paga has been able to up its game in driving financial inclusion into rural areas, Oviosu made known that about 20% of the company’s agents are deployed to rural areas. He said that the payment system has put in place certain programmes, that requires recruiting of agents that will function in the Nigeria’s rural areas, most especially the areas with no agent.
Oviosu added that Paga is a platform designed to enable connectivity across networks.
“In terms of connectivity, the beauty of Paga is that it cut across all networks. This is to say that if MTN is not available in your location, Glo will be available, and if Glo is not available, Airtel will be available.”
He claims Paga is a secure platform – During the media parley, Oviosu also expressed confidence in Paga’s level of confidentiality and security. According to him, security and safety is what Paga prioritises. And his ICT background has been a leverage for the payment firm at large.
“We are PCI Dss level 1 certified. To achieve this, you must have passed a lot of checks around your platforms and structures. Aside this, internally, we also make sure that the right people are the only ones that have access to customers’ information and there are lot of checks and balances around that.
“As our customer, as long a you keep your pin and other security details safe, we will protect you.”
Does the company plan to become a bank soon? – Addressing if Paga is looking forward to function as a bank in the nearest future, Oviosu said the fintech company is only committed to partnering with the banks.
“Our goal is to work with banks. There are so many things the banks could be doing in partnership with us. This is our message to banks, it is very clear, we want to partner, we are not competing with you and other financial institutions, we only want to have your services on our platforms.”
Meanwhile, the company is ten and expanding – Mr Oviosu tweeted earlier today that he is excited the company he founded ten years ago is doing so well today. He also thanked Nigerians for trusting him and his team.
The company is currently considering to extend its services to two other countries.
So excited! 10 years ago today I embarked on a journey to solve the "use of cash" ???
I was tired of carrying wads of cash & dealing with POS errors. @mypaga was born out of my frustration & decided to solve what is a global problem.
Thank you Nigeria for trusting us ?? pic.twitter.com/o2Oh8osuPs
— Tayo Oviosu (@oviosu) April 3, 2019
