From 2015 to 2019 Moniepoint was building infrastructure for banks. On a call with Techpoint Africa, Edidiong Uwemakpan, Moniepoint's VP, Brand Communications and PR, described this time as being in the back learning all there was to know about the banking industry.
"You've built PoS software for different banks, you've built automation tools, and a lot of the technological infrastructure the financial services industry needs to succeed. When you do it for yourself, there's a good chance you'll get it right."
Uwemakpan described Moniepoint — known as TeamApt until 2018 — as one of the companies that played a significant role in bringing banks into the age of automation.
Moniepoint's Co-founders, Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike had the experience and expertise to build directly for the people.
The founders' decision to serve the company's software expertise directly to the public started in 2019 by launching Moniepoint as a product for merchants to receive payments. Uwemakpan said the goal was to create financial happiness, and it remains the same today.
By January 2023, TeamApt did a complete rebrand to its flagship product, Moniepoint which had already processed $10 billion worth of transactions for more than 400,000 businesses in 2022.
Moniepoint now has different consumer-facing products such as agency banking, business banking, online payment gateway and even personal banking, that have gone on to do massive numbers.
In 2022, the company did $613 million in web payments monthly with 55 million unique cards used on its PoS terminals.
The Nigerian Financial Services Market report revealed that the company had the second-highest number of PoS terminals in Nigeria as of December 2022.
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Certainly, Eniolorunda and Ike's experiences have been pivotal to recording these growth numbers, but according to Uwemakpan, there is another key ingredient to Moniepoint's success — the workforce.
Employees touch grass at Moniepoint
Moniepoint's workforce more than doubled — from 962 to 1,800 — between 2022 and 2023, a time when the global tech industry saw plenty of layoffs. While no official figures were given, this in itself is a growth metric.
The employee count grew as the company offered more services and gained more customers. From engineering to support and even the business loan team, the company needed to increase its employee count to remain effective.
Keeping this large workforce productive is where the culture and principle that helps every Moniepoint employee share the financial happiness vision Eniolorunda had since 2018 come in.
Uwemakpan playfully describes this culture as touching grass, which gives you an idea of what it's all about.
Most Moniepoint employees are in touch with the market dynamics, they're deeply rooted in the financial life of the businesses and people they want to serve.
Building PoS software for someone in Sokoto while you're in Ikoyi, Lagos isn't very effective.
"I joined Moniepoint and my first few months were spent touching grass in Kano, Ikorodu, everywhere."
This exercise connects directly with Meaning, which is one of the four Ms in Moniepoint's 4M framework.
The 4M framework
This framework, as Eniolorunda puts it in a LinkedIn post, is the company's operating system, the basis of Moniepoint's work culture.
Finding meaning helps employees connect to the vision. In his post, Eniolorunda said, that in moments when people find it hard to push forward or engage their work — even those they're passionate about — "Meaning provides the impetus to persevere."
Mastery, Membership, Meaning, and Money are the four Ms.
Mastery at Moniepoint means employees are encouraged to pursue excellence.
Membership has created an interesting phenomenon within and outside Moniepoint where PoS agents and customers paying for things at supermarkets are rooting for Moniepoint.
Money, however, is the company's understanding that even when employees have the vision, feel included, and are knowledgeable about their jobs, money still makes the world go round.
"It's not just about the numbers on a paycheck; it's about empowering our employees to lead financially secure lives, contributing to a positive workplace culture," Eniolorunda said on LinkedIn.
Beyond employees
Moniepoint's culture extends beyond making employees effective, it is also the basis for the company's operations.
This is why Uwemakpan said the company will not announce any details about its expansion plans until the groundwork is done completely. While it might seem it is already cleared for an expansion to Kenya, Uwemakpan reiterated that the Kenyan regulator only announced Moniepoint's approval to acquire Kenyan fintech, Kopo Kopo, and Moniepoint will communicate officially when expansion plans are done.
Moniepoint also applies the same framework to onboarding customers. Uwemakpan said the thorough KYC process is the reason it has a low default rate for lending as businesses are screened thoroughly before they're provided with working capital.
Even its PoS terminals aren't deployed in places where they will not be used regularly.
This system helps Moniepoint stay profitable, its rule from day one.
"Moniepoint has always gotten its unit economics right; we charge for everything," Uwemakpan said.
This principle is similar to Odun Eweniyi's — PiggyVest Co-founder — charge from Day One's Masterclass at the Lagos Startup Expo.
But even after becoming a household name for a variety of financial services in Nigeria, Moniepoint's mission to spread financial happiness is only just starting.
