[Transcript] #30: Paga - How one of Nigeria’s earliest FinTech companies is providing financial services across emerging markets
Transcript for podcast originally recorded on May 30, 2021
😉 Hello Afrobility readers and listeners!
In May 2021, we explored the story of Paga, the fintech payments company. Paga holds significance in the Nigerian tech ecosystem as one of the oldest tech companies in Nigeria, established in 2009. It played a pioneering role by being among the early companies to facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers.
Companies discussed: Paga, Safaricom (M-Pesa), bKash, GTBank, First Bank, Chipper Cash, MTN, Airtel, FairMoney, Flutterwave, Paystack, Interswitch (Quickteller) & OPay
Business concepts discussed: Unbanked population, Financial inclusion, Mobile money, Payment platforms, government regulation, global expansion & Telco competition
Enjoy & DFTBA!
Olumide Ogunsanwo
Personal: Website
Afrobility Podcast: Stories and analyses of African technology companies (Website, Listen: Apple podcasts, Spotify & Google podcasts & Read: Substack Newsletter)
Adamantium Fund: African B2B fund focused on education, health, finance, food and transportation (Website & memo)
Firedom Book: Financial Independence stories of African Immigrants (Website, Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)
Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Welcome to Afrobility, a conversation about African business and technology. Today we're going to talk about Paga, the fintech payments company. We'll discuss its founding. Early history, growth over time, its place in the broader African FinTech ecosystem and end with our overall outlook. This episode was recorded on May 30, 2021.
Bankai Havertz, how’s it going?
[00:00:24] Bankole Makanju: Yeah, you should call me that!.
[00:00:28] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Bankai, sounds a bit Japanese.
[00:00:30] Bankole Makanju: Kai Havertz is everything. Chelsea are the champions of Europe, that's important. Paga. You're about to hear this entire podcast about Chelsea's Champions League victory.
But for now, let's talk about Paga.
[00:00:43] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Paga. So why are we talking about Paga today?
[00:00:45] Bankole Makanju: Some background. Paga is one of the OG fintech companies in Nigeria, OG startups in Nigeria, if you will, like this, from when I, I came out of college, it was one of the few places you could work probably same time, same era as Jumia, Konga 2011, 2012, also one of the more, I wouldn't even call it one of the earliest startups because there are many other, especially in payments, like with Value Card and Unified Payments and other startups at the time.