A Nigeria’s payment company, Paga has expressed its readiness to take services outside the shores of the country, with focus on Mexico and Ethiopian markets.
Paga said as much as it is also considering neighbouring markets, including Ghana it will first explore operations in Mexico and Ethiopia.
Speaking at a webinar in Lagos, the Co-founder & Director Business Development, Paga, Jay Alabraba, said the choice of Mexico and Ethiopia was borne out of the fact that they have huge markets, and secondly they operate almost the same financial inclusion strategy like that of Nigeria, “so it will be easy to navigate.”
According to him, all the plans have been perfected, “but for some few things we are putting together.”
On the activities of Paga in Nigeria, the co-founder said the payment platform, every month, processes about $4 million transactions, and has since 2009, processed over $2 billion worth of transactions.
He hinted that Paga recorded about 700 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in user sign-ups as a result of an increase in digital payments owing to recent lockdowns.
According to Alabrara, though the COVID-19 lockdown affected economic activities and brought about a slowdown in commerce, the opportunity that came with it was also huge.
He noted that the COVID-19 lockdown accelerated the drive to digital platforms, which brought about a huge boost in user sign-ups for customer direct channels.
“The opportunity aspect kicked in very quickly. We started to see a lot more sign-ups by customers for digital payments, as people didn’t want to have to physically interact and even handle cash. It is something we have latched on and has allowed us to know our customers a lot better,” he said.