E-Financial
Bluecode Targets Nigeria’s informal Economy in New Expansion Drive
The Bluecode payments solution is about to go live in Nigeria with two partner banks, according to Murray Gardiner, managing director of Bluecode Africa.
Gardiner explained that, Bluecode is a “pull-based” payment system.
It works like a cheque or a credit card in that it gives a merchant a means with which to “pull” a payment out of a customer’s bank account. That contrasts with “push” payments which are initiated by the customer.
For Gardiner, the difference is crucial. While push payments provide no extra information to a bank, pull payments are data-rich. That means they can open the door for the bank to selling a wider range of financial services to merchants.
Insurance for crops, buildings, equipment and even life cover could then be sold, said Gardiner.
In a country such as Nigeria, the fact that about 65% of the economy is informal makes it “opaque” to banks, he argues. Merchant pull payments “increase the size of the addressable market for banks.”
For merchants, the value added from digital payments “must exceed cash removal. They really need more services.”
The payments solution, Gardiner argued , helps to achieve a viable price point for both merchants and banks. “It’s very difficult without a digital channel.”
Bluecode is in talks with a total 30 banks in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The aim, Gardiner said, is to “light up the informal economy.”
Bluecode was founded in Austria, and the solution is widely used in Austrian food stores. In December 2019, the company raised 12 million euros in financing before expanding into Africa this year.
The system works by scanning the barcodes straight onto a smartphone. Bluecode doesn’t store any information about the client, or their bank account.
Development in Africa hasn’t been hampered by COVID-19. Gardiner has been able to source new relationships remotely rather than in person. The experience, he says, show that “the culture was driving (business) travel, not necessity.”
Europe, Gardiner said, has “lost control over its payments destiny” through its reliance on Visa and Mastercard.
He argued that Africa has the opportunity to avoid creating an “offshore dependency” which is impossible for regulators to manage.
- Digital payments which involve data leaving the country, he said, create exposure to the risk that the destination country will at some point be subject to international sanctions.
- Banks will suffer “disintermediation” and lose potential customers if they let “Trojan Horse” credit card companies manage their transactions, said Gardiner.
- In regulatory terms, Gardiner saw Nigeria as being more promising than South Africa, where local fintech is “locked out” by the dominance of card payments. Gardiner traced this to the long-standing relationship between banks and the card companies.
- Bluecode has two local tech partners in Lagos, and Gardiner expects to be holding talks with regulators there.
- “If it works in Nigeria, it works anywhere,” he said.
Bottom line
Pull payments give banks more access to merchant data – the hard part will be designing products those merchants can afford to buy.
Kuda Microfinance Bank has unveiled the 2025 edition of “My Year on Kuda,” its annual recap providing customers with personalised insights into their spending, saving, and money management habits from the previous year.
Kuda Microfinance Bank
The tool analyses transaction data across categories like transfers, card payments, online purchases, and bills, revealing patterns such as highest-spending months, biggest payments, saving frequency, and savings from Kuda’s 25 free monthly transfers. Customers can compare 2025 activity against 2024, including income versus expenditure.
In an era of inflation and economic uncertainty, the recap promotes financial literacy by highlighting responsible borrowing via Kuda Overdraft usage, including access frequency, amounts borrowed, and repayment patterns.
Customer-shared screenshots on X reflect national trends: Nigeria recorded over 2.2 billion electronic transactions worth ₦285 trillion in Q1 2025, up 20 percent year-on-year, with POS terminals driving the shift to cashless commerce.
Kuda Group CEO Babs Ogundeyi, in the recap’s opening video, urged users: “Before you carry on with January, this is the perfect time to see everything you did with your money on Kuda last year and learn something.”
The feature underscores Kuda’s focus on actionable insights to help Nigerians navigate evolving personal finance amid shifting earning and spending behaviours.
Wema Bank has introduced SAW, a new AI voice assistant integrated into the ALAT 2.0 app, allowing customers to manage finances through natural voice commands similar to Siri, Bixby, or Alexa.
Wema Bank
SAW understands everyday language and delivers instant responses tailored to banking needs, such as checking account balances, transferring money, reviewing transactions, and accessing support.
This feature brings conversational banking to Nigerian users, eliminating complexity and enhancing accessibility.
The bank positions SAW as a pioneer in AI-powered financial services, aligning with global trends where millions interact daily with voice assistants for tasks like setting reminders or playing music.
ALAT 2.0 represents the next evolution in digital banking, making services more efficient, personal, and human-like for everyday Nigerians.
Ecobank Nigeria Limited has fully repaid bondholders who validly tendered their notes ahead of the February 2026 maturity date.
The bank announced the successful completion of its tender offer, under which it prepaid approximately $245 million of its $300 million Eurobond, representing more than 80 per cent of the total issuance.
According to a statement, the transaction relates to the 7.125 per cent Senior Note Participation Notes due February 2026.
Ecobank Nigeria Limited said it launched a tender offer to eligible noteholders in respect of the outstanding $150 million on the bond on November 27, 2025, providing them with an opportunity to redeem their holdings ahead of the original maturity date of 16 February 2026.
It stated that the early and late tender participation deadlines were 11 December 2025 and 29 December 2025, respectively.
According to the bank, holders of notes validly tendered and accepted received a cash consideration of $1,000 per $1,000 in principal amount, in addition to accrued interest from the last interest payment date up to, but excluding, the final settlement date of 31 December 2025.
Following completion of the offer, the bank said the outstanding principal amount of the notes has been reduced to approximately $55.092 million.
The bank also stated that the initiative reflects Ecobank Nigeria’s proactive approach to liability management and prudent balance sheet optimisation.
The tender offer was conducted with Renaissance Capital Africa (Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited) acting as financial adviser and dealer manager, while Sodali & Co Limited served as tender agent.
The notes were originally issued by EBN Finance Company B.V., with limited recourse to the issuer, for the sole purpose of financing the purchase of the $300 million 7.125 per cent Senior Note due 2026 issued by Ecobank Nigeria Limited.
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