E-Financial
Paga Celebrates 10 Years Of Making Life Possible
Mobile money company, Paga, clocks 10 years in business since being founded in 2009 and officially opened its doors for commercial operations in 2012.
Today marks 10 years since Tayo Oviosu, Paga’s founder and CEO, embarked on the Paga journey.
A journey, he says, that was born out of the frustration with needing to carry cash everywhere in Nigeria and the inability to make payments efficiently.
While working in a private equity firm, the Stanford school of business graduate was bitten with the entrepreneurial bug and the strong need to start something big that will have a huge impact on the world. After making a list of about 20 ideas, the “cash” problem stood out like a sore thumb, and this is what he decided to dedicate his life to solving.
“I started Paga with one goal: To solve the “use of cash” problem — Cash is still king around the world — and that needs to change. Cash is very expensive to clean, manage, and store. In high-risk countries like Nigeria, carrying sums of cash around poses a security risk.
“Storing money digitally and transacting digitally significantly reduces friction, transaction costs, convenience, and improves livelihoods.
Our first market has been Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people with over 90% of transactions done in cash,” He explained.
“Though the company started in April 2009, we took our services to market in August 2012. It took us 25 months to get our license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, and then another 7 months to close our Series A financing.”
A lot has happened since then: The trailblazing team of 4 has grown to a team 460 and counting. Paga has served over 12 million customers and processed over 72 million transactions worth $4.6 billion.
The company has also raised $34.7 million since its inception, attracting investors such as Tim Draper, one of the earliest internet investors, Flourish, a venture of the Omidyar Group, and the Global Innovation Fund, amongst others.
Since its commercial launch in August 2012, Paga has developed into a sophisticated omnichannel payments platform offering users a safe and convenient way to send and receive money, and pay their bills.
Customers are able to use Paga on any mobile phone by dialing *242# on any network, Paga’s mobile app or website, or through any Paga agent. The innovative wallet allows users to link multiple bank cards and also fund the wallet directly in order to access funds from one world-class secure location.
The company has established itself firmly as a pioneer in the Fintech industry and a leader in mobile payments. This is due in part to the foresight of the founders to solve the key challenges that came with mobile payments – how to include people who weren’t banked into the digital ecosystem.
The answer was to aggressively build out an agent network; Relying on neighborhood stores where people could pay cash into digital wallets and make electronic payments. Paga now has over 20,000 agents in every region in Nigeria, particularly in rural and semi-rural areas.
“We are very proud to celebrate this milestone,” says Tayo, “At Paga, we say we are making life possible for our customers. We want to make payments so seamless that you can focus on what you really care about — whether that is ensuring that your wife is admitted to the hospital for treatment, or ensuring your daughter is allowed into school because payment was made on time.
“ I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved so far. Our investors have been fantastic partners and we won’t be here but for their belief in our big idea”
In the next decade, Paga is expanding its offering to include in-store and online e-commerce payments, and financial services such as savings, loans, and insurance in partnership with banks and other financial institutions.
The company has also announced plans to expand to other emerging countries that have similar “cash” problems that the Paga multilingual and multi-currency platform is equipped to solve.
Federal Capital Territory High Court has ordered Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited to pay N15 million in damages to two former customers after finding that the bank unlawfully retained and processed their personal information after they had terminated their banking relationship.
In a judgment delivered on July 29, Justice Kayode Agunloye also directed the bank to erase all personal data belonging to the claimants that it is not legally required to retain and restrained it from further processing or using such information without lawful authority or the customers’ consent.
The court held that the bank breached the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023, the claimants’ constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA).
The suit, marked CV/2190/25, was filed by David Ogundipe and Salami Tolulope Ibrahim, who argued that Stanbic IBTC continued to process their personal data for marketing purposes even after they had closed their corporate account with the bank.
According to the claimants, the account was shut following unresolved issues with the bank.
Despite the closure, they alleged that Stanbic IBTC continued sending promotional emails and text messages to their personal and corporate email addresses as well as their telephone numbers.
The customers said their solicitors later wrote to the bank demanding that all marketing communications cease and that their personal data should no longer be processed for promotional purposes.
Although the bank reportedly acknowledged the request and assured them that the messages would stop, the unsolicited communications allegedly continued, prompting them to seek judicial intervention.
In his ruling, Justice Agunloye held that once the banking relationship had ended and the customers had withdrawn their consent, the bank no longer had any lawful basis to process their personal data for marketing activities.
The judge ruled that the continued use of the claimants’ information amounted to an infringement of their constitutional right to privacy and constituted an unfair trade practice under the FCCPA.
The court consequently ordered Stanbic IBTC to delete all personal information relating to the claimants that it is not legally required to retain and to cease every form of data processing except where permitted by law or regulatory obligations.
Justice Agunloye also granted a perpetual injunction restraining the bank, its officers and agents from retaining, processing, transmitting or using the claimants’ personal data for marketing, promotional or any other unauthorised purpose.
While the claimants sought N250 million as damages, the court awarded N15 million as general damages, describing the amount as adequate compensation for the persistent unsolicited communications, the bank’s failure to honour requests for data erasure and the violation of the customers’ privacy rights.
The bank was further ordered to pay N500,000 as the cost of the suit, while the claim for N7 million as litigation expenses was dismissed for lack of sufficient proof.
Justice Agunloye directed that all monetary awards would attract 10 per cent post-judgment interest annually until fully settled.
However, the court declined to order the complete deletion of every record relating to the claimants, holding that banks remain under statutory obligations to retain certain customer records in compliance with financial regulations and anti-money laundering laws.
Reacting to the verdict, counsel to the claimants, O.E. Oluwadamisi of Earnest Attorneys LP, described the decision as a landmark judgment for data protection in Nigeria.
He said the ruling reinforces the mandatory nature of compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act and makes it clear that organisations cannot continue processing customers’ personal information after consent has been withdrawn unless authorised by law.
One of the successful claimants, David Ogundipe, welcomed the judgment, saying it represented a victory not only for the litigants but also for millions of Nigerians whose personal information is held by corporate organisations.
He expressed hope that the ruling would encourage institutions across the country to strengthen compliance with data protection laws and place greater respect on customers’ privacy rights.
The number of Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) on the Nigerian banking industry’s fraud watchlist reached 13,117, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This is coming as banks strengthen efforts to detect and prevent financial crimes.
According to the CBN’s 2025 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, the number of BVNs on the banking industry’s fraud watchlist increased from 9,476 in 2024 to 13,117 in 2025. This represents a 38.4 per cent increase.
The apex bank explained that commercial banks, including Access Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and other financial institutions, added 3,641 new BVNs to the watchlist during the year.
The report said the increase reflects stronger fraud monitoring, improved compliance, better risk management, and enhanced systems for detecting suspicious transactions.
It added that the higher number does not necessarily mean fraud has increased, but shows banks are becoming more active in identifying and blocking suspicious activities.
The report also revealed that consumer lending declined for the first time since 2019.
Outstanding consumer credit dropped by 19.89 per cent, falling from N4.72 trillion in 2024 to N3.78 trillion in 2025.
The CBN attributed the decline to high interest rates, which made borrowing more expensive for many Nigerians.
Personal loans recorded the biggest drop, falling to N1.85 trillion.
However, retail loans rose by 63.77 per cent to N1.94 trillion, making them the largest category of consumer credit for the first time in several years.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has ordered banks to refund a total N19.12 billion to customers for illegal deductions and poor complaint handling.
This is coming as bank customers lodged 23,129 complaints against financial institutions in 2025, representing 11 per cent increase over the previous year.
The apex bank also imposed N1.69 billion in penalties on financial institutions for regulatory breaches, poor complaint handling and failure to comply with its directives, according to its 2025 Annual Report.
The CBN attributed the increase in complaints to growing public confidence in its consumer protection framework rather than a deterioration in banking services.
The report stated: “The Bank received a total of 23,129 complaints from consumers of financial services in 2025, a rise of 10.53 per cent above the 20,925 in 2024. The trend reflected increased awareness and improved confidence in the Bank’s consumer complaint resolution process.”
The apex bank added: “A total of 18,824 complaints were resolved, indicating a 9.36 per cent increase over the 17,213 complaints resolved in 2024.”
On the value of disputed transactions, the CBN said: “Total claims in local currency increased to N40.61 billion from N17.13 billion in 2024. Foreign currency claims also rose, reaching $344.2 million compared with $1.06 million in the preceding year.”
According to the report, “Based on the resolved complaints, the sums of N19.12 billion and $329.3 million were refunded in 2025, compared with N9.66 billion and $0.67 million in 2024.”
The CBN said it strengthened enforcement against erring financial institutions during the year.
It stated: “During the review period, the Bank imposed 11 penalties on financial institutions totalling N1.26 billion for infractions ranging from regulatory breaches and failure to respond to regulatory queries.”
The report further disclosed: “In addition, the Bank imposed 21 penalties on financial institutions to the tune of N430 million for infractions ranging from delays in resolving customer complaints to failure to comply with the Bank’s directives.”
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