…Says Better Days Ahead

By Amaka Obiefuna

Paga Communications, one of the leading Fintech companies in Nigeria, said it has processed 335 million transactions, worth over N14 trillion or $32 billion, in the past 15 years through the creation of a payment ecosystem that makes it easy for Nigerians to access and use their money.

Speaking at a media parley put together by the Company to celebrate it’s 15th anniversary in Lagos recently, its founder/CEO, Mr. Tayo Oviosu, who highlighted the achievements of the Company in the past 15 years, said as at the end of March, 2024, the company had processed 335 million transactions since inception, worth over N14 trillion or $32 billion and 80 per cent of all was done in the last five years.

“This last quarter was our best quarter ever. Currently Paga has 23 million users, and this attests to Nigeria’s growing acceptance of mobile money as highlighted by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS).

Oviosu confirmed that the company has employed 1,000 people directly and over 100,000 people indirectly through its network of agents across the country.

Apart from creating jobs, the CEO confirmed that the company has grown beyond the agent network, servicing 150 enterprises and offering platform-as-a-service to others as a means of infrastructure provision.

“We are giving financial freedom; impacting our community and we are fanatical about customer experience. Paga today is not what it was yesterday – Today we have three lines of business, namely Consumer Merchant, Platform As Service and Doroki App.

“We are here for a long haul. We have started in Nigeria and we are going to go to other countries. We are here to build financial solutions for Nigerians” he assured.

Speaking on security measures, Oviosu posited, “We have made sure that every step on the way, we have built multiple layers and rings of security to our system to protect the accounts of our customers from cyber attacks.

“We are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certified, a widely accepted set of policies and procedures intended to optimise the security certification.”

While commending the regulator for formulating business-friendly policies that have helped the fintech industry to grow, he said “The regulator has made very clear the categorisation and that has attracted a lot of competitors. And that’s a good thing. We don’t look at that as a bad thing because it also keeps us on our toes.”

On the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), an effort to give back to the society, Paga boss noted that the company through it’s ‘Paga Tech For Her’ programme has partnered with Utiva, a tech training platform, to empower 18 women with scholarships to learn desired in-demand skills in tech.

He added that in 2023, Paga was selected as 50th top fastest growing company in Africa by the Financial Times of London; as a mobile payment company which has continue to building an ecosystem to enable people to digitally send and receive money, and creating simple financial access for everyone.