Key takeaways:
- Companies with the most PoS agents in Nigeria: With over five hundred thousand agents, OPay has the largest agent network in Nigeria as of December 2022.
- According to the Nigerian Financial Services Market report, Moniepoint comes in close with over three hundred thousand agents.
- Lagos has the most agents, accounting for 29% of all agency banking networks in Nigeria.
According to the Nigerian Financial Services Report, agency banking (point of sale [PoS] and mobile money) is one of the major ways people without bank accounts in Nigeria get money from people outside their community. This means PoS agents could be a major driver of financial inclusion in the country.
Companies with the most PoS agents in Nigeria as of December 2022
OPay
At 563,252, Chinese-owned fintech, OPay has the most PoS agents in Nigeria. In the report, Nigeria has a total of 1.5 million banking agents, meaning OPay has a 37.17% share.
OPay is a fintech company that launched in Nigeria in 2018. Since then it has raised a total of $570 million and is valued at over a billion dollars.
While it dominates mobile money and agency banking in Nigeria, it started by providing motorcycle-hailing and food-delivery services in the country. It has however focused on financial services which have grown exponentially over the year.
Moniepoint
Moniepoint has the second-highest agency banking network at 303,946 — 20.06%.
Previously, TeamApt, Moniepoint was founded in 2015 as a startup that designs mobile apps for banks. It moved into the agency banking space in 2018 after a $5.5 million Series A.
First Bank
First Bank has 160,740 PoS agents in the country, giving it a 10.60% share of the total number of PoS agents in the country.
First Bank launched its agency banking arm — Firstmonie — in 2015. The goal was to reduce the dependence on over-the-counter transactions by allowing Firstmonie agents to perform functions such as opening bank accounts, accepting deposits, withdrawals, and mney transfer.
In 2022, First Bank announced that Firstmonie agents have processed ₦22 trillion worth of transactions since launch.
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Quickteller
At 35,490 PoS agents, Quickteller ranks fourth as the company with the most PoS agents in the country. This means it has a 2.3% share of total agency banking networks in the country.
Quickteller is a product of one of Nigeria's oldest fintech unicorns, Interswitch.
Access Bank
Access Bank is fifth with 26,013 PoS agents in Nigeria, — 2.34%.
Ecobank
Ecobank has 18,879 PoS agents in the country — 1.24%.
Union Bank
Union Bank has 2,936 PoS agents representing 0.19% of the total agency banking networks in the country.
First City Monument Bank (FCMB)
Second to last on the list is FCMB with 2,028 agents — 0.08%.
Keystone Bank
Keystone Bank has 1,163 — 0.1%.
It is important to note, however, that companies like Paga, PalmPay, and others who run agency banking networks in the country were accounted for and one agent could be using multiple companies.
However, PalmPay disclosed publicly in June 2023 after this report was published that it has over 500,000 PoS.
Yinka Awosanya, the Lead Researcher for the report said, not all companies shared their numbers, and of the ones that did, only figures authorised by the companies were used.
The report which interviewed over 4,600 Nigerians also revealed 77% of Nigerians who do not have bank accounts or mobile money accounts have used a PoS or mobile money agent.
In fact, "there is no financial institution in my area" was the leading cause of why many of them did not have bank accounts. With the accessibility of agency banking to people without bank accounts, agency banking is a key factor in promoting financial inclusion.
