PalmPay credits mobile money expansion to Internet, smartphone advancements

Onome Amuge

L-R: Femi Hanson, head, marketing and communications, PalmPay; Chika Nwosu, managing director, and Donald Ubeh, head, risk and compliance, MLRO at PalmPay’s media roundtable discussing 2025 fintech forecast

Financial services firm, Palmpay has identified smartphone penetration, internet connectivity and innovative technologies as key factors that are crucial to increased access to mobile money services in Nigeria.

Chika Nwosu, the managing director, PalmPay, stated this during an interactive engagement with the media held recently at the company’s head office in Lagos.

According to Nwosu, with smartphone penetration projected to reach 65% by 2026 as well as improved internet infrastructure, more Nigerians will be enabled to access mobile money services.

The PalmPay MD disclosed that, with fintech companies such as PalmPay evolving through digital wallets and seamless payment gateways, accessibility to mobile money service was bound to expand soon.

He emphasised that with the demand for affordability of financial services growing, more opportunities would be unlocked for PalmPay in the near future.

“From under 10,000 agents in 2015 to over 1.5 million agents in 2023, agent networks have become the backbone of mobile money operations in Nigeria. For this reason, we are more likely to see a sharp increase in the number of mobile money agents and merchants. Apart from that, MMOs will increasingly use artificial intelligence to improve customer experiences, such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and fraud detection,” he said.

Also speaking at the event,  Donald Ubeh, head, risk and compliance, MLRO at PalmPay, revealed that an effort was ongoing to remove Nigeria from the FATF Grey list. He stated that with more collaboration with regulators and other financial institutions, it was only a matter of time that Nigeria’s name will be expunged from the list.

While highlighting the impact of fintech companies such as PalmPay, Ubeh explained that the berth of PalmPay has led to economic empowerment, particularly for users and several Small and Medium Scale enterprises.

He noted that many Nigerians including bank customers have migrated their funds to PalmPay owing to convenience and accessibility it provides.

He added that mobile money operators were conceived with the aim of driving financial inclusion for the underserved and unbanked population.

According to EFInA, increasing adoption of fintech companies by Nigerians has led to an increase in financial inclusion rate by 13 percent in 13 years.