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Paga Partners LSETF to Drive Financial Inclusion for Lagosians

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Paga, pioneering Payments and Financial Services Company is collaborating with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to promote entrepreneurship and employment growth and deliver financial services across Lagos State.

The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund is a N25bn fund to power micro and small medium enterprises (MSMEs) and improve skills, specifically the scheme is designed to help Lagos residents grow and scale their MSMEs or acquire skills to get better jobs.

The fund expects to create 300,000 direct and 600,000 indirect jobs within 3 years by supporting at least 100,000 MSMEs.

Speaking on the collaboration with Paga, Akintunde Oyebode, Executive Secretary of the LSETF said; “Financial Inclusion is a big area we are interested in. Paga is helping Lagos State achieve its mandate by supporting agents financially. For LSETF and Paga, we are beginning with this pilot; we are definitely convinced that we want this to be a long lasting relationship. We want to move the current number of people currently accessing the Fund to over 1,000 agents or more. This solves a lot of problems, first is the fact that we give the Paga agents money and they hire more people. Second, when you hire more people your business grows and you take financial services down to places where people could not access them and thirdly we are glad the Paga agents are empowering more women. The opportunity is tremendous and we have only just begun.”

One of the Paga agent recipients of LSETF loans, Mr. Ekanem spoke about the challenges he faced in obtaining funding and the support LSETF and Paga has given him; “Before this development started, I had plans to expand my Paga business into the rural areas where people don’t have resources to reach banks and make bill payments but I didn’t have the resources to carry out my plan.

Then Paga came on and said they are partnering with Lagos State to do this and I was very happy because lack of funds is one thing that has been slowing the further growth of my business due to the situation of the country. We told Paga that if this money comes to us, it’s going to help us carry out transactions for more people. When we have enough capital, it reduces our transportation to the bank, increases security, saves time and also gives us more income. With this program, many lives will be touched and the jobs will be increase. I have started employing people because of this fund and also opened a new branch where other people will benefit from. It is a good development and we appreciate Paga and LSETF.”

In line with the company’s mission to provide financial access to all Nigerians, Paga’s 11,000 local agents is the largest and most active network of financial access points in Nigeria.

These agents are small entrepreneurs who offer Paga services within their grocery stores, boutiques, pharmacies etc.

They enable customers to send money to any bank account in Nigeria instantly, or to anyone using their phone number – the recipient picks up the funds at another Paga agent or at the ATM of 10 participating banks (without a card). Customers can also withdraw money from their bank accounts and pay their utility and household bills at Paga agents.

Tayo Oviosu, CEO & Founder of Paga noted the importance of supporting Paga Agents; “At Paga, we’re delighted to support entrepreneurs providing financial services in their communities. Paga is for all Nigerians and our goal is to deliver financial services to the mass market and bring convenient payments to everyone. We believe that the support offered by Lagos State Employment Trust Fund has the potential to transform the success of small businesses and create employment in Lagos State. Already we estimate that our over 3,000 agents in Lagos employ at least 1,500 people. We look forward to working more with Lagos State to grow our agent base, and create jobs for Lagosians, and drive financial inclusion. We see these types of public-private collaboration as the great examples for other states to emulate.”


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E-Financial

MoneyMaster PSB Marks 2024 Global Money Week

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MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank Limited (MMPSB), Nigeria’s payment service bank, is joining blue chip companies and other corporate entities across the globe to celebrate the 2024 Global Money Week from March 18 to 24, 2024.

In a press statement issued on the celebration, MMPSB emphasized  its commitment to the provision of top-notch banking services to its customers at all times, including payment services through wallets, savings, individual and business accounts, as well as provision of a platform for customers to buy airtime/data, pay bills and subscribe to cable television, amongst others.

MMPSB said its plans for the week include a “Catch them Young” experiential campaign to tutor kids on the need to embrace savings and investment culture. An estimated 5,000 students from across major schools in Nigeria have been programmed to participate in the week-long financial literacy training in the bank’s coordinating centres across 10 states.

Besides this, the MoneyMaster team will also engage teachers and enlighten them on basic knowledge of savings and investment for future purposes.

The bank added, “As part of the week-long celebration, MoneyMaster PSB will also be releasing thought leadership videos on safety and security on how banking customers can protect themselves. These videos will be shared to its customers via direct email and also on its social media handles for the benefit of the general public”.

The week, celebrated annually, creates global awareness-raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people, from an early age, are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being.

“Protect your money, secure your future”, the theme for this year’s celebration,  is focused on safe money management, underscoring  the importance of adopting a responsible and informed approach to personal finance, by being aware of potential risks in the financial sector and protecting one’s hard-earned money.


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Moniepoint Emerges Lead Sponsor of Payments Forum Nigeria – PAFON 1.0

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Moniepoint Inc. a global digital financial services provider with operations in Nigeria and an ongoing expansion into other emerging markets, has emerged the lead sponsor of the maiden edition of Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON 1.0).

Payments Forum Nigeria [PAFON] is an event focused on providing inside-look at the payment industry in the country, offering perspectives from key stakeholders, including payment networks, technology innovators, leading merchants, issuers, acquirers and payment processors.

The Forum is scheduled to take place this Thursday, March 21, 2024 at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki Road, Lagos by 9am-12noon, under the theme: “Payments: Trust, Security and Privacy in AI Era”.

Register here: https://bit.ly/4c4N19H

Moniepoint Inc., founded with the vision to create a society where everyone experiences financial happiness, joins other sponsors of the event: Digital Encode Limited (a leading consulting and integration that specializes in the design, management, and security of business-critical architecture); Cybervergent (a company dedicated to helping protect business sensitive data from cyber-attacks, including customer information, financial records and intellectual property); Payble (a fintech startup that modernises local government payments such as creating citizen-centric payment experiences, delivering flexible billing and simplified rate collection, and Inlaks, an IT company that offers core banking, fraud management, cybersecurity, cloud, data center, enterprise risk management, amongst other industry players.

Moniepoint Inc is the parent company of TeamApt Limited, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) licensed Switch and Processor, and Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, a CBN-licensed Microfinance Bank, and operates the largest distribution network for financial services in Nigeria through its subsidiaries, and has been awarded by the CBN in 2022 as the most inclusive payment platform in the country.

Over 70 million people use their cards on Moniepoint’s POS terminals monthly across every local government in Nigeria.

Led by its Group CEO, Tosin Eniolorunda, Moniepoint Inc.’s technology has powered businesses, offering all the payment, banking, credit and business management tools they need to succeed. It aims to power the dreams of businesses, their employees and customers by providing them with the financial technology tools they need to grow, no matter their digital literacy level.

Moniepoint Inc. currently processes the majority of the POS transactions in Nigeria through its subsidiaries, processing over $182 billion in TPV. It is Africa’s largest Fintech by transaction volume. It is profitable and, in 2022, became QED Investors’ first investment into Africa.

Moniepoint Inc was recently named as the Fintech Company of the Year by the Leadership Newspapers Group.

Speakers:

Meanwhile, speakers lined for PAFON 1.0 are: Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Payments System Management, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Festus Amede, Chairman, Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial institutions (CCISONFI); Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer (CVO), Digital Encode Limited; Adetokunbo Omotosho, Chief Executive Officer, Cybervergent; Roosevelt Elias, Founder, Payble; Ikenna Ndugbu, Chief Compliance Officer, Moniepoint MFB, and others.

Participation:

Participation is FREE, however, pre-registration is required: https://bit.ly/4c4N19H


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BVN Registration Hits 61.16m

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Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has said the registration for the Bank Verification Number (BVN) has now increased to 61.16 million, according to Vanguard report.

NIBSS disclosed this on its website on Saturday, adding that the BVN is 61,166,384 as of Friday, March 15, 2024.

Earlier in the year, the agency had reported that as of January 26, the BVN count stood at 59.9 million.

This indicates that there have been 674,280 new registrations for BVN between late January and mid-March.

The need for Nigerians to register their BVN arose following the demands by banks and telecommunication companies asking people to link their accounts and phone numbers with SIM.

Majority of Nigerians have let out their frustrations at some point when the linking of BVN with accounts were not successful.


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