Paga hits N1.5tn transaction value
Paga, Nigeria’s mobile payment company has announced that it has crossed N1.5 trillion in transactions since its launch in August 2012.
This showed a continuous pattern of steady growth. Since 2012 to date, the company has processed 87 million transactions, valued at N1.5 trillion or $5.4 billion using monthly nominal exchange rates.
“Reaching one trillion in transaction value is a major milestone for Paga. We are proud of our success in digitising cash and making it easier for people to pay and get paid. We are working round the clock to continue to bring innovative solutions to the mobile payments industry as we expand our range of services,” said Tayo Oviosu, Founder and CEO of Paga.
With over 13 million users across all 36 states of Nigeria, Paga is an omni-channel payments platform offering users a safe and convenient way to send and receive money and pay their bills. Paga celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding in April 2019 and at that time announced its plans to expand its services into new global markets.
This milestone represents a major boost for Nigeria’s ambition with regards to financial inclusion. In 2010, Nigeria made a commitment to reduce the adult financial exclusion rate in the country from 46.3 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020, and the National Financial Inclusion Strategy was launched on October 23, 2012 in order to attain the target.
The 2012 NFIS defined financial inclusion as “when adults in Nigeria have access to a broad range of formal financial services that are affordable and meet their needs” and set out the target for overall financial inclusion at 80 per cent, with a long list of more detailed targets, recommendations and an implementation plan to achieve the goals by 2020.
To attain the financial inclusion target by 2020, there must be 62 agents for every 100,000 Nigerian adults, according to the CBN.
“Currently, there are only 28.2 agents per 100,000 Nigerian adults. Issues around profitability of agent networks, agent fee structure and other environmental issues have contributed to this gap. A deliberate effort needs to be undertaken by stakeholders to address policy-related bottlenecks and rapidly deploy agents,” the apex bank said.
Mobile money operators such as Paga have helped increase the number of agents in the country despite the challenges.
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