Remita, Cellulant partnership to extend payment services across Nigeria

Thousands of individuals and businesses, especially the unbanked and underbanked, would now be able to conveniently make payments to the Federal and State Governments and a wide array of billers and merchants in Nigeria. They would also be able to make interbank transfers for personal and business purposes through web and mobile channels as well as at agent locations.

Expected to deepen financial inclusion in the country, this development is courtesy of a recent partnership between Remita and Cellulant, pan-african leader in fintech and agritech.

The partnership combines Remita’s robust financial technology and Cellulant’s extensive agency network. It would empower a larger number of Nigerians with easier means of making payments to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) of Federal and State Governments and other billers such as hospitals, educational institutions, electricity companies, water service providers and others on Remita’s large merchants’ base.

Read also: PayDay Loans: How Remita is stimulating consumer, SME credit

In addition, Cellulant customers would now be able to make interbank electronic funds transfers from Cellulant’s web channel, Tingg mobile application and at any agent location.

All agents on the Cellulant nationwide network would also be able to process payments to all Remita billers and make interbank transfers from their current web and mobile applications.

Speaking on the partnership, Ezinne Obikile, executive director, infrastructure and payment gateway, Systemspecs – provider of Remita, says it is yet another stride in extending financial services to the excluded and underbanked communities in Nigeria.

“We remain committed to driving innovation in the financial ecosystem through collaborations that provide seamless and secure technology to accelerate financial inclusion,” Obikile states.

Remita thrives on partnerships with other players within Africa’s financial ecosystem and has emerged a provider of robust payment infrastructure and solutions to fintechs, financial institutions as well as SMES, large enterprises and governments. Today, Remita processes about $6billion worth of transactions monthly.

Bolaji Akinboro, cofounder/ co- CEO of Cellulant Corporation, notes: “We believe fundamentally that technology is the key to making markets work, accelerating and broadening financial inclusion for all across Africa. In particular, in a large economy such as Nigeria, there is a need to consolidate and extend the frontier of payment services to individuals and businesses in rural and urban communities.

“This partnership further enhances our brand promise of delivering a unified experience to customers while connecting them to their key needs and things that matter to them irrespective of their location.”

Powering digital payments across 18 African countries, Cellulant organises the continent’s marketplaces by connecting individuals, businesses and organisations across rural and urban locations to a single digital payments platform that enables them to make and receive payments easily.