Moniepoint, one of Nigeria’s biggest payments startups, had a triumphant 2023 despite the multiple issues that plagued the country’s financial services industry. The fintech startup averaged 433 million monthly transactions across its web, mobile, card and in-person payment channels and closed the year with 5.2 billion transactions, according to an internal company presentation seen by TechCabal.
The value of those transactions was over $150 billion. It represents a 205% increase from 2022, when the startup processed 1.7 billion transactions worth over $100 billion.
Moniepoint’s numbers are impressive compared to the transactions NIBSS — operator of Nigeria’s real-time payment infrastructure — handled in 2023. According to data seen by TechCabal, NIBSS processed 9.6 billion transactions, which were worth ₦600 trillion.
Moniepoint’s numbers (5.2 billion) represent almost half of the transactions NIBSS processed, emphasising how 2023 was Nigeria’s best year for digital payments since 2020.
However, looking eastward, Moniepoint’s transaction volume is dwarfed by MPesa, Kenya’s largest payment processor. The Kenyan payment giant processed 12.93 billion transactions from April to September 2023, more than double Moniepoint’s 2023 numbers. This might explain why Moniepoint is expanding to Kenya.
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Moniepoint: From a small startup to a payment behemoth
Moniepoint has grown from a little-known banking software development company that developed products for Nigerian banks to a payment behemoth. The startup says it currently has more than 2 million business accounts on its platform.
In August 2023, Moniepoint ventured into the personal banking space. At the time, Ope Adeyemi, Moniepoint’s senior vice president for channels and sales tools, told TechCabal that the fintech had 800,000 POS terminals actively used daily nationwide.
The startup currently runs its ubiquitous agency banking product, Moniepoint, an online payment gateway Monnify, and its personal banking product. Through these products, users can pay for bills and airtime, transfer money to bank accounts or POS devices, and pay with cards. Business owners can also manage their businesses with the startup’s features, like tax management, compliance, payroll and expense management, and receiving loans.
Moniepoint’s business customers are in different sectors. The majority of their business users come from the retail sector (38.29%), food and drinks (17.77%), oil and gas (9.11%), IT and electronics (6.12%), beauty and personal care (4.5%), and agriculture (4%).
Moniepoint’s bird-eye view
When you process these many transactions daily, you can get a birds-eye view of how Nigerians move money daily.
Sundays are the peak time for food purchases in Nigeria, typically between 7-8 p.m., according to company data seen by TechCabal. Nigerians also bought ₦100 worth of airtime 63 million times, making it the most popular amount for airtime transactions.
Nigerian election periods are usually mired with violence, and 2023 was no exception. The fear of this violence leads Nigerians to stock up on food and other provisions. According to Moniepoint, this also extends to bill payments. The day before Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, it processed the highest bill payments for cable and electricity subscriptions in an hour.
