One of Nigerian fintechs licensed as a mobile money operator, Paga, says it has processed transactions worth N14 trillion in the last 15 years.
The company’s founder and CEO, Tayo Oviosu, disclosed this in Lagos on Thursday at an event to mark the company’s 15th anniversary. He, however, noted that 80% of the transactions have been recorded in the last five years.
The figure from Paga confirms the rising embrace of mobile money in Nigeria. Recent data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) revealed that mobile money operators in the country, including Paga, Opay, and Palmpay, among others, processed transactions worth N17.2 trillion between January and March this year.
Economic impacts
While counting the company’s milestones in the last 15 years, Oviosu said one of the biggest achievements of the company was the several people it was able to empower through job creation. According to him, the company has created 1,000 direct jobs and over 100,000 indirect jobs through its agents spread across the country.
The Paga founder noted that the company has expanded beyond the agent network to providing infrastructure for others through platform-as-a-service and serving 150 businesses. On the consumer side of the business, he said:
- “As of today, we have 23 million users. At the end of March, we had processed 335 million transactions since inception, worth over N14 trillion or $32 billion and 80% of that we did in the last five years. This last quarter was our best quarter ever.”
- “When you look at our 10th anniversary, which was five years ago, from then we have grown volumes by five times and transaction values by seven times,” he added.
Competition in fintech
Oviosu said the Nigerian payment landscape is very competitive because it is a very attractive market. He, however, noted that there is a huge opportunity for every player to create a niche and acquire customers.
- “The regulator has made very clear the categorization and that has attracted a lot of competitors. And that’s a good thing. We don’t look at that as a bad thing because it also keeps us on our toes.
- “And so all the competitors are a bit different in how they do things. I think our market is very similar to India. I don’t think it’s a winner-takes-all because there is no one person in Nigeria that has only one financial account. I’ve not met the Nigerian who has only one account. So, it’s not a winner-takes-all, but you probably have one that you prefer,” he said.
Speaking on the challenges the company has faced over the years, the Paga identified dearth of fund as a major issue, especially at the inception of the business.
- “When I started Paga, there was no angel investors, there was no tech ecosystem because nobody was doing anything at that time. So, when you are going out to pitch to investors, you are not just going out to pitch Paga, you have to pitch the story of Nigeria. And that was very hard because of the macro issues in Nigeria, so that was a real challenge,” the Paga CEO said
