That is Comply with the Cash, our weekly sequence that unpacks the earnings, enterprise and scaling methods of African fintechs and monetary establishments. A brand new version drops each Monday.
In a yr when Nigerians processed a file ₦79.6 trillion ($49.6 billion) via their cell phones, two of the nation’s greatest banking teams—Warranty Belief Holding Firm (GTCO) Plc—are racing to dominate the digital funds area—and taking very totally different performs to get there.
Warranty Belief Holding Firm (GTCO) Plc and Entry Holdings Plc, which have turned their fintech subsidiaries into main engines of development, aren’t simply making massive numbers; they’re redefining how hundreds of thousands of Nigerians transfer cash. GTCO’s HabariPay and Entry’ Hydrogen processed a mixed ₦76.5 trillion ($47.7 billion) in transactions in 2024, up 217% from ₦24.1 trillion ($15.0 billion) in 2023, based on their newest full-year monetary stories.
What drove the numbers?
Just like fintech firms like Flutterwave, Hydrogen, which launched in September 2022, focuses on backend funds infrastructure, enabling different fintechs, banks and telcos fairly than competing instantly for end-users. This mannequin helped it course of ₦49.1 trillion ($30.6 billion) in funds in 2024, a 313% leap from the earlier yr.
The launch of Hydrogen Cost Gateway, together with new options to boost cost card safety, drove vital development in transaction volumes throughout its switching, service provider collections, and funds infrastructure, based on a press release by Entry Holdings to TechCabal.
“These choices opened new income streams and broadened our influence throughout the funds worth chain, enabling extra companies to entry safe, seamless cost infrastructure,” it mentioned.
GTCO’s HabariPay, additionally launched in June 2022, took the other tack: go direct. By way of its Squad platform, it has onboarded over 30,000 retailers throughout Nigeria and constructed a worthwhile enterprise round SMEs and digital-first retailers. HabariPay processed ₦27.4 trillion ($17.1 billion) in 2024, up 124.6% year-on-year.
“When a financial institution with a robust fintech method and over 37 million prospects enters the market, it has an actual shot at dominance,” mentioned Segun Agbaje, GTCO’s group CEO, on its investor relations name on April 3, 2025. He added that GTCO would push aggressively into PoS terminals this yr to develop Squad’s attain additional.
The broader shift: From money to clicks
Behind the surge in bank-led fintech transactions is a broader, irreversible shift in how Nigerians transfer cash. Cell cash utilization has exploded—from simply ₦3.05 trillion ($1.9 billion) in transaction worth in 2020 to ₦79.6 trillion ($49.6 billion) in 2024. Volumes have jumped from 130 million to three.92 billion.
A current report by Worldpay, a worldwide cost firm, exhibits Nigeria recorded the steepest decline in money transactions globally over the past decade. From 2014 to 2024, the nation noticed a 59% drop in money use, beating out the Philippines, Indonesia, and Germany. This decline is fuelled by rising smartphone penetration, fintech adoption, and regulatory nudges like cashless coverage limits and instantaneous cost rails.
Surge in transactions made cash
Past quantity, there’s revenue, and Hydrogen and HabariPay are cashing in.
Hydrogen pulled in ₦10.3 billion($6.4 million) in income in 2024 and delivered a ₦1.89 billion($1.2 million) revenue—a 1,074% bounce year-on-year. It’s now Entry Holdings’ most worthwhile non-bank subsidiary.
GTCO’s HabariPay made much more cash—₦4.22 billion($2.6 million) in revenue—off ₦6.66 billion ($4.1 million) in income. That’s nonetheless only a fraction of GTCO’s complete ₦1.02 trillion ($635 9 million) group revenue, nevertheless it exhibits the fintech guess is already delivering.
Challenges forward
The stakes are excessive. Fintechs like OPay, Palmpay, Moniepoint, and Kuda are nonetheless rising quick and personal model fairness amongst younger, digital-savvy Nigerians. In the meantime, the Central Financial institution is tightening its grip on the sector with stricter Know-Your-Buyer guidelines, larger capital thresholds, and scrutiny on transaction charges.
“Service provider retention and platform stickiness shall be vital,” says Lagos-based analyst Abimbola Adewale. “If GTCO and Entry can construct ecosystems that hold customers locked in, they may beat the fintechs at their very own sport. But when it turns right into a value battle, margins will vanish.”
There’s additionally the matter of scale. Whereas Hydrogen is being positioned as a pan-African funds spine, continental enlargement is expensive and fraught with regulatory mismatches.
“Cross-border shall be robust,” Adewale says. “But when they pull it off, Hydrogen may turn into the AWS of African funds.”
GTCO and Entry Holdings are not simply watching from the sidelines. They’re knee-deep within the fintech race—one constructing the roads, the opposite driving them shortly.
Whether or not these bets evolve into dominant platforms or stay area of interest income boosters will depend upon how effectively the banks juggle innovation, regulation, and competitors. However one factor is obvious: the following frontier of Nigerian banking received’t be at a department—it’s already in your cellphone.
