records over $5 billion in transaction value as of the end of February in Nigeria alone
“Please send the money to my PalmPay account because I may not see it on time if you send it to my other bank account,” the driver who dropped me off one windy March morning explained.
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 were coming to the rescue and business owners could easily receive payments in their mobile wallets.
On that fateful morning, the driver who requested that his fees be paid into his PalmPay wallet got his credit alert before my banking app told me the transaction was successful. According to social media posts from many Nigerians, this is the average experience of Nigerians who use PalmPay.
PalmPay is an intuitive digital wallet with account opening, money transfer and bill payments 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.
Through its PalmPartner app, it provides merchants with online payment and offline POS-acquiring services. Consumer services include no-fee payment options, low-cost transfers, bill payments, rewards programs and discounted airtime.
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Naira scarcity and PalmPay’s heroics
Chika Nwosu told Technext that 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.”
The naira scarcity also saw a surge in the volume of e-payment transactions, and it is no longer news that traditional banks have struggled to keep customers satisfied. Thankfully, PalmPay had already established a reliable digital payment infrastructure that could handle customers’ requests, even as new customers signed up on the platform.
Palmpay agents and the drive for revolutionary banking
Although an e-wallet and online payment platform that offers financial services to users via its mobile app, the platform has become popular for providing pathways for users to earn money while using the mobile app for e-payment services.
In outlining the platform’s unique offerings, Chika Nwosu noted that its cash-back and rewards system is a peculiar strategy and offering that no other platform can boast of.
If you look at our product you will notice one unique proposition which is the cashback customers get when they make use of our platform for various purposes which ranges from recharging, paying bills, subscription and even transfers. No conventional banking platform offers this.
Mr Chike Nwosu
On their operations in the country and in the continent, Mr Nwosu noted that while the platform only currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana, the platform has successfully established itself in almost all the nooks and crannies of the country, with its super agents present in almost all the local government area currently.
For Palmpay Nigeria, we have our agent banking and the app side of the business. For the agents’ banking, we have them deployed in about 700 local governments in Nigeria currently. We also have our customer care services with almost 300 staff, plus the regional offices.
Nearly 25 million Nigerians use PalmPay, with more than 500,000 agents in different locations in the country, and the business operates in more than 95% of Nigeria’s local territories while successfully processing over 15 million transactions daily.
PalmPay has established means to stay ahead of the curve by establishing an efficient research team that investigates the needs of Nigerians. The company interacts with customers via the app, its super agents, and the customer support team to provide notable features that will continue to ease financial inclusion for the underbanked.
You can watch the full interview here: