PalmPay, a leading Africa-focused fintech platform, is celebrating its fourth anniversary with a series of remarkable achievements that underscore its commitment to advancing financial inclusion in Nigeria.
In just four years since its launch in the country, PalmPay has experienced explosive growth, with 30 million users on its smartphone applications. This milestone represents a tripling of its user base since the announcement of 10 million users just last year.
The fintech company’s rapid expansion is not far-fetched from its innovative product, which has brought financial solutions to the country’s significant challenges in the past few months.
Speaking to Technext on 4years of operating in the country, Chika Nwosu, the Managing Director, Palmpay Nigeria, says the journey has been one of challenges and triumphs. “There were points when we wanted to quit and then we continued. This is all due to the team, which has been committed, preemptive and resilient,” he says.
Going forward, we are focusing on ensuring that before 2025, we have 100 million users on our app, and at least 10million merchants.
Chika Nwosu, MD Palmpay Nigeria
Currently, a pivotal component of PalmPay’s strategy is its extensive network of 1.1 million businesses, comprising 500,000 agents and 600,000 merchants who have embraced PalmPay’s POS (point of sale) and Pay With Transfer services. These dedicated agents have played a crucial role in extending PalmPay’s reach across Nigeria, providing millions of additional consumers with essential financial services.
In total, an impressive 40 million consumers, or 1 in 5 Nigerians, now use PalmPay via its smartphone apps, agents, and merchants for money transfers, bill payments, and savings.
Sharing her comments with Technext, Sofia Zab, Chief Marketing Officer, PalmPay, says upon coming to Nigeria, the first thought was to create a super app that addresses the financial gaps that existed at that time.
“Back then the financial infrastructure was poor and the transaction failure rate was high, as a result, there was so much promise in the fintech sector. But people didn’t have the urge to make digital transactions, they would instead prefer to go to the PoS agents or ATMs to use their cards. So the company first had to build that infrastructure that made digital transactions seamless.”
Nigeria’s ecosystem is transforming and people are comfortable with digital transactions now, and Palmpay is spearheading that.
A look at the last 4 years for Palmpay
PalmPay is an intuitive digital wallet with account opening, money transfer and bill payment features in one. The Africa-focused payment platform launched in Nigeria in November 2019 after raising a $40 million seed round -the largest of its kind in Africa- led by mobile phone maker Transsion.
Over the years, the company has played a significant role in transforming consumer behaviour in Nigeria, fostering a shift towards cashless transactions. On average, each user of the PalmPay app conducts up to 50 transactions per month, a figure that has quadrupled since the platform’s launch.
Perhaps, a notable period in the platform’s operations in the country is the cash crunch early in the year. The cash crunch that rattled many Nigerians at the start of the year was at its peak, and merchants were complaining about the services of financial institutions while old and new naira notes were scarce. Thankfully, innovative fintechs like PalmPay were coming to the rescue and business owners could easily receive payments in their mobile wallets.
According to Chika Nwosu, PalmPay foresaw the challenges that Nigerians would face after the CBN declared its intention to reduce the cash circulating in the economy. In its bid to stay ahead of the curve and help the underbanked navigate the situation, certain steps were taken.
“We were well prepared for it. As soon as the federal government, through the central bank, made the policy, we went to work. What we did was to design and create nearby agent services, which helped our customers access agents nearby to them to swap the naira notes.”
Since then, the fintech has not just become an e-wallet and online payment platform that offers financial services to users via its mobile, it has also now become popular for providing pathways for users to earn money while using the mobile app for e-payment services.
According to Chika, the platform has gained the trust of Nigerians. “This remarkable achievement firmly establishes PalmPay as a trusted and reliable platform for conducting a wide range of financial transactions,” he says. “With our achievements, we fully embody our tagline, Finance That Fits Your Life. As we move forward, we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and are committed to fostering a future where financial services are accessible to all.”
Nwosu also highlighted PalmPay’s commitment to payment reliability, boasting an impressive 99.5% success rate in processing transactions within 10 seconds.
Read also: Palmpay launches 20% annual interest savings plan as it celebrates 25m users
Moving ahead
According to Sofia, the company remains committed to providing solutions to Nigeria’s financial challenges and struggles. A major challenge it is studying and looking to solve in the coming months is Nigeria’s forex issues.
“The CBN is now talking about liberalising the forex market and that means we have the option to try to be part of that. We have to see how we can help people transfer money internationally and be in the remittance space. We also actively looking at looking at leading the next wave of digitization in the business space.”
By offering a secure, user-friendly, and inclusive suite of financial services, PalmPay brings top-tier products into the pockets of everyday Nigerians. The platform provides money transfers, bill payments, credit services, and savings through its app and mobile money agents.
With its young and dynamic population, Nigeria represents a vast potential for digital financial solutions. PalmPay’s successes in the country underscore its deep understanding of local needs and its ability to provide services that resonate with Nigerians from all walks of life.
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