Moniepoint takes financial inclusion drive to more African markets

Moniepoint, an agency banking platform, has announced plans to expand its financial inclusion drive to more African markets.

In its 2020 financial inclusion report, Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) stated that 38 million citizens, representing 36 percent of the adult population, remain completely financially excluded.

The report expressed optimism that digital financial services and agent banking growth will drive faster progress toward financial inclusion, particularly for excluded groups such as women, rural and northern Nigerians.

Tosin Eniolorunda, founder and chief executive of TeamApt, an engineering and sales company that created Moniepoint, announced this at a media parley, in Lagos, on Thursday.

Established in 2019, Moniepoint is an online payment gateway that uses mobile agents to provide financial inclusions to customers.

Eniolorunda said the company boasts of processing N1.4 trillion transactions monthly for its 14 million Nigerian customers through about 68 million transactions.

“Today, we process about N1.4 trillion monthly across about 68 million transactions through 100,000 agents distributed all over the country,” he said.

“We serve 14 million people, and that has given us presence across the country, but you’re going to see more of Moniepoint everywhere serving people.”

He noted that the company achieved the result with only $5 million in capital raised.

He cited the April 2020 report by the Shared Agent Network Facilities (SANEF), which states that Moniepoint owns 74 percent of the agent banking market.

“Our solution is a point of sale, a mobile app and a web application that agents can use to serve customers,” he said.

“The mission of the company is to help people use technology to find financial happiness. This is being executed, and we are taking it on to the next level now. We want to take on the unbanked and underserved market. This is not just about those who don’t have bank accounts.

“Beyond Nigeria, we are also expanding across Africa. Africans deserve financial services that are better than what Europeans and Americans have.”

The CEO said Moniepoint combines a digital approach with offline distribution to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria.

“We are going to be present in Nigeria but on a different level. We are also going to establish a presence in more African countries. We are going to be having presence in Francophone West Africa, East Africa between Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania; Central Africa, Congo DRC is also one of the places we are looking at; in Southern Africa the same thing too,” he added.

“By 2026, it is a mandate that we have from my team as well as our investors.”

Speaking on the challenges faced by the startup company, Eniolorunda said Nigeria has made it difficult to build and sustain businesses in the country.

“It is hard to build a business in Nigeria and thrive as the macroeconomic conditions are tough and demanding. Macroeconomic conditions have also led to the scarcity of technical talents that we really need,” he said.

“Regulation has been fairly supportive for financial inclusion type of businesses.”

He said the increase of fraudulent activities poses a danger to the operations of the fintech company.

Eniolorunda added that the company is looking at raising new capital in the coming months to boost operation.