Nigerian fintech PalmPay will increase into South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Tanzania by the top of 2025, constructing on momentum from processing over 15 million every day transactions in its dwelling market through the first quarter, Managing Director Chika Nwosu mentioned at a press convention on Wednesday. He declined to reveal the worth of the transactions.
The growth will convey PalmPay’s footprint to 6 African nations, following earlier launches in Ghana and Kenya. If profitable, the broader presence may scale the corporate’s development and place it for a future public providing. In Tanzania, the corporate will supply business-to-business providers, however didn’t specify its product choices for different new markets.
PalmPay, which says it has greater than 35 million customers in Nigeria, will face stiff competitors in its new markets. In South Africa, it would compete with MTN’s MoMo platform, which has 11 million registered customers, and TymeBank, which has 9 million. In Côte d’Ivoire, fintech unicorn Wave dominates with over 20 million accounts and roughly 70% of the market. Uganda’s cell cash area is essentially managed by telecom heavyweights MTN and Airtel.
Nwosu additionally shared that clients now carry out a median of fifty transactions—together with financial institution transfers and airtime purchases—month-to-month with a 99.5% success fee.
“Cell cash wasn’t all the time perceived as viable, however we recognized a core downside: system reliability, particularly for easy issues like free and seamless transfers,” he mentioned. “So we invested in know-how that’s environment friendly and dependable.”
PalmPay additionally paid out over ₦4 billion ($2.4 million) in 2024 to 9 million customers with its wealth product, which permits customers to earn every day curiosity charges. On condition that PalmPay presents customers as much as 22% annual curiosity on deposits in its wealth product, a ₦4 billion curiosity payout in 2024 means the fintech held over ₦18 billion ($11 million) in buyer deposits on its wealth pockets alone. Clients additionally maintain deposits exterior of the fintech’s wealth pockets.
Regardless of the constraints of its cell cash license, PalmPay customers can earn curiosity and buy treasury payments by means of its partnerships with insurance coverage firms like Leadway Assurance and funding homes like ARM.
“We have now successfully constructed a brilliant app that integrates banking, funding, insurance coverage, and funds,” Nwosu mentioned. “Consider it like a one-stop monetary market that’s totally compliant by means of layered partnerships.”
The fintech may even deepen its attain in Nigeria’s underserved areas regardless of being current in all of Nigeria’s 774 native governments and open an workplace within the six geopolitical zones, Nwosu mentioned.
After launching its first debit card in partnership with Verve in March, Nwosu instructed reporters that the corporate is on track to distribute over 5 million playing cards earlier than the top of 2025. Palmpay will distribute the playing cards by means of its community of over a million brokers nationwide, who serve over 13 million clients month-to-month.
PalmPay is not going to relaxation on its Q1 numbers, as it’s investing in know-how, listening to clients, and constantly enhancing safety, reliability, and product depth to draw extra clients, Nwosu mentioned.
In accordance with the Nigeria Inter-Financial institution Settlement Methods (NIBSS), licensed cell cash operators like PalmPay and OPay processed ₦71.5 trillion in transactions in 2024, a 53.4% improve from 2023’s ₦46.6 trillion.