Over 3m Nigerians’ Use Paga

Amidst the constant debate around the success of mobile payments in Nigeria; Paga, the country’s leading payments company has announced a significant rise in the adoption of its services, with over 3 million users now using its agent and online/mobile payment channels to send and receive payments.

Less than 8 months since announcing its last million user milestone – the company reached 2 million users in November 2014; Tayo Oviosu, Paga founder and CEO, credited the rapid growth to understanding the unique challenges faced by Nigerians looking for a simpler way to make payments.

“For my team and I, the issues around payments are far reaching. It goes past being able to move money from point A to B. In the 6 years Paga has been in operation we have developed a relationship with our customers. We hear their stories and we know that every transaction that occurs on our platform is more than just money. It’s someone trying to pay for something in a less stressful way. Whether it’s paying for a TV subscription; child’s school fees; a visa; people buying airtime to stay connected to the ones they love or a new business finally being able to accept payments from its customers. . With every transaction there is some emotional connotation for the end user and our ability to relate to that and create solutions that make everyday life possible for Nigerians is the #1 reason people continue to choose Paga.”

Founded in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu, the company remains focused on building a payments ecosystem that can be leveraged by banks, businesses, and consumers. Paga’s agent network is at the core of that ecosystem.

Paga now has over 8,300 agents in 35 states – the largest and most active network in Nigeria. The agents are locations where people can comfortably go in to make payments within their community.

On what next for Paga and the future of mobile payments, Jay Alabraba, co-founder and director of Business Development for Paga, said…“We believe strongly that accessibility still has a big role to play in the future of mobile payments and financial inclusion. With the unique challenges around connectivity in Nigeria, having a viable agent network remains key to ensuring that every Nigerian, irrespective of their location has access to finance. Our agent network is a key part of the Paga success story, and we currently have over 8,000 agents…and the numbers are growing every day.

We are now engaged with our bank partners for the next phase of our evolution is partnering with banks for agent banking -the delivery of banking productsthrough our agent network. By partnering with banks we believe we can ensure that all Nigerians get banked.This will also bring greater offerings to our agents who are all business owners in their own right. We are very excited about what the future holds as we further open up our network.”

Since inception Paga has processed over 15 million transactions worth over N154 billion and has over 800,000 active users.

The figures and this new milestone for Paga show that the industry is making more progress than previously reported. Looking forward, it is easier to see the role Paga and the rest of the industry will play in reducing the obvious issues around payments in Nigeria, boosting economic returns and promoting financial inclusion.