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How KongaPay Saved my life Amid Naira scarcity – Trader
A petty trader, Mrs. Bolade Inuwa, has narrated how she was spared huge embarrassments and inconveniencies in the wake of the recent policy pronouncement on the redesign of select denominations of the national currency – the Naira, specifically referencing how KongaPay, a mobile money wallet operated by Nigeria’s leading e-commerce giant, the Konga Group, came to her rescue.
Nigerians from all walks of life have had to contend with severe difficulties in the wake of the announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which initially pegged January 31, 2023 as the deadline for the return of old series of 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes.
Amid concerns raised in various quarters, the CBN had stuck to its guns, insisting there are no plans to shift the deadline, prompting some businesses to stop receiving the old series of affected denominations even ahead of the deadline for their return.
In a video from a media briefing held on January 24, 2023 after the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was quoted as saying: “I must say here that unfortunately, I don’t have good news for those who feel that we should shift the deadline. My apologies.
The reason is because just as the president has said on more than two occasions, and even to people privately, that for us, 90 days — in fact, we feel it’s 100 days — is enough for anybody who has the old currency to deposit the money in the banks.
“And we took every measure to ensure that all the banks were open or remain still open to receive all old currencies; 100 days, we believe is more than adequate…’’
However, the CBN had later revised its earlier stance, announcing a 10-day extension of the deadline for the use of old naira notes across Nigeria.
Emefiele, who disclosed he had received the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari for the extension, revealed that the new deadline is now 10 February 2023 instead of the former 31 January deadline, while adding that those who are yet to change their naira notes from the old to new ones, now have an opportunity to do so.
Furthermore, the CBN Governor had urged Nigerians to utilise the opportunity because the deadline will not be extended again. In the wake of this development, events had quickly escalated.
Nigerians had intensified the process of returning their old currencies to the banks, but the new/redesigned denominations were not so forthcoming or readily available, resulting in a scarcity that saw many resort to desperate measures.
Point of Sales (POS) terminal operators led the charge, hiking their service charges astronomically for the new denominations and even the old notes, blaming the excess charges on the difficulties they face in getting cash.
A few banks also had to shut down some of their branches as a result of insufficient cash to treat the deluge of visitors who throng the halls daily, some as early as the wee hours of the morning, in search of cash.
Some branches were also subjected to attacks by increasingly desperate customers. Owing to the associated pressure from a growing number of Nigerians who now sought refuge in online transfers, several bank apps consistently recorded failures, leaving many stranded and frustrated.
Mrs. Inuwa was one of the millions of Nigerians affected.
‘‘When I learnt of the deadline for the return of the old notes, I had immediately notified my family members and made plans to have all the affected denominations with me lodged in the bank even before the initial January 31 deadline.
“It proved to be a costly move as I was now virtually cashless and unable to access either the old currencies or the new notes. For five consecutive days, I had to leave the house very early to go and queue up at a bank in my vicinity, yet I was unable to withdraw any money.
“The queues were very long and before you know it, a representative of the bank would come out to announce that they have exhausted the cash sum for the day.
‘‘Patronizing the POS operators around me also proved to be another very costly venture. Some of them were charging as high as N1000 for N5000 worth of the old notes and even higher for the new notes. Transfers initiated to and from various commercial banking apps were also failing and at best, erratic.
“My kids could not go to school and my business was suffering. It was not just a frustrating experience but one of the worst times I have experienced.’’
Succour, however, came the way of Mrs. Inuwa when a friend of hers introduced her to KongaPay.
‘‘I had stumbled across KongaPay at a party late last year when one of my colleagues used it to process a transfer to the hosts. Back then, everyone had commented on how swiftly the transfer went through and the seamless experience.
“So, when my friend cited how KongaPay has helped her navigate the difficulties with cash scarcity and failing bank transfers, I saw light at the end of the tunnel.
‘‘It was very signing up for an account at www.kongapay.com and upgrading my account after complying with the KYC document requirements.
“Thereafter, I was able to not only say goodbye to the challenges of failed transfers, but I was amazed at all the other things I could do with my KongaPay account, including purchasing airtime, paying for DSTV bills, recharging my prepaid meter line, all without extra charges. It was indeed an eye-opener.
‘‘Most importantly, I have been able to pay my suppliers and resume my business after signing up as a merchant, while my children have also been able to return to school.
“Surprisingly, I have processed well over 90 transfers since I started using KongaPay in early February and I am yet to experience one failed transfer.
“I can also access and generate my statement of account with ease. It has been a gem of a discovery,’’ she concluded.
Launched in 2015, KongaPay debuted as a pilot product in partnership with Nigerian commercial banks in response to concerns expressed by customers about the confidentiality of their details while trying to make payment for products on the Konga website.
Since inception, the platform has grown immensely and under the drive of the new management of Konga, is leading the new-found appetite for digital payments among e-commerce patrons and other subscribers, processing tons of transactions on a daily basis.
KongaPay was recently identified as the leading provider of digital payment services for e-commerce transactions in Nigeria. The rating came from Statista, a globally renowned market and consumer data firm.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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