Fintech firm mitigates cost of living crisis with new credit product

In a bid to mitigate the current cost of living crisis and give Nigerians access to better quality of life, Payfi, a Fintech firm
has partnered FCMB and Credit Direct Limited (CDL) to introduce a new credit product, ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL)
product.

BNPL is a financing method that lets users make purchases on credit and pay at a future date, usually in instalments. With PayFi’s infrastructure all users need is their account number to make a purchase at checkout.

For consumers, the product allows them to shop online when they don’t have the funds readily available.

According to the firm, “Users find partnered merchants via the Payfi website, mobile app, or FCMB mobile app, add items to their cart and select Payfi as their preferred payment method.

“They can then choose to checkout directly on Payfi with their bank account or sign in with their Payfi ID if they are existing Payfi users. Once the transaction is successful, the merchant will proceed to deliver the goods or offer the service, and the customer can pay back later. This system allows consumers to get access to quality goods and services in a financially flexible way.”

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For businesses, the infrastructure allows them to plug into Payfi’s online checkout solution to accept BNPL. For financial institutions, Payfi allows them to distribute their credits through PayFi’s platform, offering more options to their customers, increasing their retail portfolio and sales, reducing risk, improving customer loyalty, and also being able to monitor the use of credits by seeing the actual goods or services their customers have purchased.

This infrastructure also enables financial institutions to offer BNPL as a product to customers.

According to Payfi, this concluded collaboration with FCMB is the first step towards the plan to ensure all banks in Nigeria are integrated, as all users will need to transact on Payfi’s BNPL is their bank account number.

“By extending its BNPL infrastructure to other financial institutions, Payfi also frees up resources for these institutions for free, so they don’t need to commit time or resources to build from scratch.
Payfi is a fintech company that focuses on helping Africans build wealth by providing credit access to underserved salary earners.

“They provide customers with split payment (pay small, small) options to make payments for rent, school fees, healthcare, alternative energy, shopping, travel, bills, and more through checkout options online or offline.

According to a company statement, “This collaboration with FCMB and CDL was inspired by the need to ensure that every Nigerian has access to credit at the point of sale.

“Through this partnership, FCMB and Credit Direct Limited can provide loan disbursement services to eligible customers. In addition to these two partners, we also have other disbursement partners like Renmoney, Zedvance and Snow MFB who are able to provide credit on our BNPL Infrastructure.”

Payfi began as Osbit computing in 2018, initially providing financing to bankers and their families and friends who wanted to purchase mobile devices.

Founded by three tech bankers–Philips Akinyele (CEO) Seun Sanni (COO), and Matthew Igho (CTO)–they began with the goal of helping Africans build wealth by providing credit access to underserved salary earners.

“Payfi has gone from a dream shared by three individuals to a thriving start-up with $1 million in pre-seed investment, 50,000+ users nationwide, and N800m+ in GMV in 2022.” Philips Akinyele says.

“In 2022, we onboarded over 3000 new merchants that provided you with an option of over 100,000 products and services to shop from, and we also rolled out a new mobile app with an incredible interface.”

With the launch of this product, Payfi has identified the pain point of all parties involved in financial purchases and has built a solution to address these points. With a product like this wealth creation becomes easier for Nigerians from individuals to businesses.