Future of payments in Africa will be driven by collaboration, says Cellulant

The innovative fintech driving financial inclusion in Africa while ensuring transactions’ safety, security and integrity, Cellulant Nigeria says it sees a bright future for payments in Africa and that collaboration, rather than competition, will drive it forward. The Head of SME Sales, Cellulant Nigeria, Ademola Okuleye, said this during a recent appearance on Arise TV’s Global Business Report. He noted that though there are several fintech companies in Africa’s payment space alongside Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), cooperation, not competition, will drive the market’s growth. “The outlook for payment is very bright, especially in Nigeria. Today, more fintech companies are rising to solve different problems for businesses and consumers in specific sectors and verticals. This means that the payment space is becoming more competitive, which also presents a great opportunity for collaboration. Our take is that we need each other to support the market fully; we need each other. You can see this by the type of partners we have, such as our partnership with UBA Group to simplify payment experiences for their customers.”  

We also partnered with Grey Finance. One of the advantages of technology is that Nigerians can work remotely for companies abroad, so we partnered with Grey Finance, which enables anyone who signs up to open and operate a virtual foreign bank account,” Okuleye said. On the dominance of telcos in the payment space, Okuleye reiterated that they are not a competition but collaborators who will help expand broadband penetration useful for fintech.  “There is room for everybody to operate. We don’t see their coming into the digital payment space as a threat. We see it as an opportunity because to get the best out of the system; they need to get internet to places where the current penetration is low. So, it’s good for everybody. Once they get internet into those places, we also have access to such subscribers and customers,” he said. Okuleye further noted that broadband access in rural areas would boost fintech and SMEs that significantly contribute to Nigeria’s economy. 

According to him, once there’s a higher degree of broadband penetration, life would be easier for “payment companies and SMEs that are the heartbeat of business in Nigeria.” Okuleye explained that despite low internet penetration, Cellulant is making payment accessible to Nigerians through its offline channels. “Nigerians use our products across the country despite low internet penetration because of our offline options. We have large enterprise customers with 300 to 400 outlets across the 36 states using the offline options,” he said. Cellulant is a leading pan-African payments technology company founded on a deep belief in the power of building a payments ecosystem that creates seamless interoperability across the continent.  Founded in 2003, Cellulant has more than 18 years of experience providing locally-relevant payment solutions for businesses and their consumers. Its evolution over the years, from a digital content business to mobile banking and now to payments, has allowed the company to build an expansive network, strong relationships and partnerships.