Fintava Pay is banking the unbanked in Northern Nigeria

Banking the unbanked became the go to tagline for Nigerian fintechs during the country’s fintech boom between 2020-2023. Many fintechs parroted the claim that they were going to bank 36% of Nigeria’s adult population, or 28.8 million people who had no access to financial services. However, only a few fintechs followed through on that promise beyond the confines of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and startup capital. 

In 2022, Tobi Arowolo, Samuel Ojerinde, and Isaiah Tokinbo,  launched Fintava Pay, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform to allow businesses—microfinance banks, cooperative societies, and agent networks—launch custom financial products aimed at financial inclusion in Northern Nigeria. Unlike traditional fintechs that build direct-to-consumer apps, Fintava Pay provides white-label banking solutions to businesses, super agents, and microfinance institutions, enabling them to offer tailored financial services to their own respective communities.

Fintava Pay’s approach is particularly useful for Northern Nigeria where digital literacy is low and financial exclusion is most severe in the country. About 38% of the North East and 47% of the North West’s population are financially excluded. Citizens in this region rely on super agents to get cash and perform banking transactions. Fintava Pay offers a lifeline through its white-label solutions that allows super agents to open bank accounts for users. 

“It’s not that banks don’t exist in these areas,”Arowolo, the company’s CEO told TechCabal. “The problem is that they are centralised in urban centres, while the majority of the population in rural areas lack the infrastructure or financial literacy to engage with digital banking.”

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2023 annual report, there are approximately 5,000 commercial bank branches across the country, 1,614 (32%) of which operate in Northern Nigeria.

Fintava Pay often customises these banking solutions in Hausa, a local language commonly spoken in Northern Nigeria,  and carries out transaction verification methods that don’t rely on smartphones, which are still uncommon in the areas it serves. 

“We still use the CBN mandated approach to opening bank accounts, i.e. the use of BVN and NIN,” Ojerinde said. 

For verification, Fintava Pay sends OTPs to three family members in different locations. This is to ensure that the agent does not have access to the user’s account.

To accommodate users without smartphones for digital banking, the company provides them with ATM cards for cash withdrawals.

“Before they receive ATM cards, OTPs will be sent to the three numbers. If the three OTP is not available at that point, the users will not be given cards,” said Arowolo. 

The startup recently onboarded BusyPay, a super agent network in Kano. 

“The founder of BusyPay approached us, saying, ‘If I had the technology, I could onboard thousands of people overnight,’” Ojerinde recounted. 

Fintava Pay claims that within 24 hours of launching BusyPay’s custom banking app, the platform registered 1,000 downloads and began onboarding customers who previously had no access to digital banking.

While financial inclusion in Northern Nigeria can be attributed to low digital literacy rates, there is a negative perception of interest-based banking by locals due to religious beliefs. The north is largely Muslim. Partnering with super agent networks like BusyPay has helped Fintava Pay overcome this.

“There are people who refuse to open accounts with traditional banks because they associate them with interest-based transactions,” Ojerinde explained. “But when they see a familiar face—a trusted local business or agent—they are more likely to engage with financial services.”

Due to users’ low digital literacy, fraud has been a major concern for Fintava Pay. The company risks agents misusing customer data for unauthorised transactions. In addition to requiring three separate phone numbers (including family members) for identity verification and OTP authentication, agents also undergo strict onboarding requirements to ensure trust.

“One thing we have struggled against is human error. Some people expose their BVN and bad actors use them to take loans,” Ojerinde noted.  

To combat fraud in its systems, Ojerinde notes that the team hires ethical hackers to regularly check for loop holes within its system.  

Beyond providing financial solutions for Nigerians, Fintava Pay is courting interest from across Africa and is currently working with a Zambia business where it plans to replicate its model. 

“This isn’t just a Nigeria problem,” Ojerinde noted. “Many African markets face the same financial inclusion barriers.”

With the potential to become a pan-African Banking-as-a-Service provider, Fintava Pay is exploring fundraising opportunities to fuel expansion. However, Ojerinde—who is currently bootstrapping with his cofounders—is cautious about taking investor money too early. 

“We don’t want to raise just for the sake of it. We want to prove our model at scale first,” he said.

How Fintava Pay makes money

Fintava Pay generates revenue through a mix of service fees, subscription plans, and transaction charges. Businesses pay to access its API infrastructure, allowing them to offer financial services without securing a banking license. 

Partners using Fintava Pay’s white-label banking solutions are charged a monthly subscription fee for platform maintenance and updates. The company also takes a cut from wallet top-ups, bank transfers, bill payments, and ATM withdrawals. 

Additionally, it earns from issuing debit cards linked to its banking platform and charges businesses that integrate its services via API. So far, the company—which is yet to turn a profit—says it has processed over ₦30 billion ($38 million) in transactions and serves over 100,000 customers, with plans to scale further.

The differentiation of Fintava Pay

While companies like Bloc, Anchor, and Maplerad offer Banking-as-a-Service, Fintava Pay stands out by focusing on financial inclusion in underserved markets, particularly Northern Nigeria and rural communities. Unlike competitors who provide generic banking APIs, Fintava Pay customises solutions for local financial behaviours. 

Instead of working directly with end-users, Fintava Pay partners with microfinance banks and agent networks that already have customer trust. This differs from the likes of Moniepoint and Opay which directly operates agent-led banking, but doesn’t offer deep customisation for businesses to run their own fintech solutions.

For businesses who use its API to receive payments, Fintava Pay claims it does instant settlement for businesses.  Arowolo claims that businesses who use competitor API to receive payments are only able to access their money after 24 hours. The business also claims it charges lower than its competitors and prices can be negotiated based on the number of transactions done.

The startup which is currently present in Nigeria’s north, east and west has no plans of expanding into Lagos. 

“You want to focus on other parts of the country where people are not focusing ,” Ojerinde noted.