Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business - #30: Paga - How one of Nigeria’s earliest FinTech companies is providing financial services across emerging markets

#30: Paga - How one of Nigeria’s earliest FinTech companies is providing financial services across emerging markets

05/31/21 • 75 min

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Paga, the fintech payments company. We'll discuss its founding, early history, growth, impact & end with our overall outlook. This episode was recorded on May 30, 2021.

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

Conversation highlights:

(00:40) - What Paga does and why we’re talking about it
(04:27) - Founder background, Paga founding
(07:20) - Payments context at the time of Paga’s founding
(19:40) - Fundraising - Seed, Series A, B, B2
(24:30) - Expansion plans to Ethiopia, Mexico, Philippines
(26:30) - Product strategy and features
(40:50) - Monetization and user growth over time
(50:46) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
(58:13) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:09:00) - Recommendation and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendations: Countdown to retirement (part 1, part 2 and part 3), LinkedIn Feed Blocker & Twitter Timeline eradicator
Small win: Didier Drogba's message to Chelsea before 2021 CL & Kai Havertz response after winning CL

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Eni Duro - Olamide, 0809ja for life - Etisalat advert & Correct models are bad
Small win: CHELSEA FC ARE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE! Big win!

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

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

Conversation highlights:

(00:40) - What Paga does and why we’re talking about it
(04:27) - Founder background, Paga founding
(07:20) - Payments context at the time of Paga’s founding
(19:40) - Fundraising - Seed, Series A, B, B2
(24:30) - Expansion plans to Ethiopia, Mexico, Philippines
(26:30) - Product strategy and features
(40:50) - Monetization and user growth over time
(50:46) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
(58:13) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:09:00) - Recommendation and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendations: Countdown to retirement (part 1, part 2 and part 3), LinkedIn Feed Blocker & Twitter Timeline eradicator
Small win: Didier Drogba's message to Chelsea before 2021 CL & Kai Havertz response after winning CL

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: Eni Duro - Olamide, 0809ja for life - Etisalat advert & Correct models are bad
Small win: CHELSEA FC ARE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE! Big win!

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Previous Episode

#29: bKash - How the FinTech payments platform became Bangladesh’s largest tech company

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about bKash - The largest Fintech player in Bangladesh. We start with some background on Bangladesh, discuss bKash’s founding, growth & impact on Bangladesh's economy. We also discuss what other emerging markets can learn from the bKash story & end with our overall outlook. This episode was co-hosted with Shammi Quddus & recorded on May 16, 2021.

Companies discussed: bKash, CellBazaar, Money in Motion, Grameenphone, Grameen Bank, BRAC, BRAC Bank, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Nagad, Telenor, Gates Foundation, IFC (World Bank) & Alibaba (Ant Financial)

Business concepts discussed: Agency banking, ecosystem partnerships, microfinance expansion, Nonprofit fundraising, impact investing, Telco distribution & serial entrepreneurship

Conversation highlights:

(00:30) - Why are we talking about bKash and Bangladesh FinTech
(04:40) - Bangladesh context and similarities to African countries
(14:50) - Fintech context in Bangladesh before bKash in 2011
(16:20) - Founder background - Kamal Quadir background, CellBazaar
(22:05) - bKash background - Iqbal Quadir, Grameenphone, etc.
(30:48) - bKash founding
(47:18) - Fundraising - IFC , BMGF, Ant Financial
(59:30) - Product & monetization strategy
(1:22:22) - Impact of bKash on the tech sector and economy
(1:23:56) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:36:26) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:42:20) - Shammi’s overall thoughts and outlook
(1:50:41) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (by Nir Eyal) & Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger (by Peter Bevelin)
Small win: Dinner with friends with a live band. Some chatting, some drinking & some dancing. Marvelous!

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Prescription Drug Commercials - why they are the way they are by Packy McCormick and Nikhil Krishnan
Small win: Spending a week in New York
Other content: M-Pesa rate card, FT Partners

Shammi’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Fintech podcast 11fs.com/podcast
Small win: Got my COVID vaccine! Vaccines for the win!
Other content: Bangladesh Bank MFS guidelines, bKash gives a boost to the poor

We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com

Next Episode

#31: African Sports betting & gambling tech - The rise & expansion of betting services across Africa

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Sports betting & gambling tech in Africa. We share some context about betting in developed and emerging markets, analyze betting tech companies across Africa & end with our overall outlook. This episode was recorded on Jun 13, 2021.

Companies discussed: BetKing, Betway, Bet9ja, BetBonanza, SportPesa, BetFair, Bet365, Flutter entertainment, Paddy Power, Walletec, 22Bet, William Hill & Multichoice

Business concepts discussed: Gambling, Betting, Tech policy, Taxation strategy & Government Tech

Conversation highlights:

(01:00) - Why we’re talking about sports betting / gambling + how it works
(11:10) - Betting & Sports gambling in the UK
(18:20) - Betting & Sports gambling in India
(21:20) - Context of sports betting in Africa
(31:57) - Gambling regulation across African countries
(37:39) - Western Africa betting startups
(43:32) - Southern Africa betting startups
(49:40) - Eastern Africa betting startups
(57:30) - Northern African betting startups
(1:00:17) - Bankole’s overall thoughts
(1:10:09) - Olumide’s overall thoughts
(1:16:05) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations, small wins & open questions:

Recommendation: The Ride of a lifetime (by Bob Iger). Loved it. Email [email protected] with autobiography recommendations
Small win: Las Vegas last weekend (fun getaway) with friends :)

Bankole’s recommendations, small wins & open questions: