Nigerian SMBs Get Digital Payments Boost Through Untapped Global-Paga Pairing

Investment company Untapped Global on Monday (Oct. 4) announced that it’s expanding its partnership with Nigerian mobile payments platform Paga to help small businesses accept digital payments by lowering the cost for merchants to buy a handheld point-of-sale terminal and other digital tools.

The companies recently completed a pilot program on the POS devices and are now rolling out the initiative to a wider audience.

“We are excited to scale our POS rollout program with Untapped,” said Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga Group, in the joint announcement. “We have built the best on-ramps and off-ramps for cash in Nigeria through the Paga agent network and are further digitizing merchants via our new merchant platform, Doroki.

Paga has more than 33,000 merchants in its ecosystem, he said, and plans to boost that number to 120,000 merchants in the next two years. “Our goal at Paga Group is to make it simple for one billion people to pay, get paid and access financial services,” Oviosu said. “The team at Untapped is aligned with that goal, and the current partnership showcases its objective to ensure that entrepreneurs have the opportunity to scale to their full potential.”

Untapped Global’s Smart Asset Financing is an investment model that provides capital for fast-growing companies, using technology to make investments safer and more profitable by tracking assets and capturing real-time revenue information.

Paga’s POS devices allow businesses to accept cards, mobile payments and other forms of digital payments.

“The network of the POS devices that will be available for merchants via this partnership is powerful,” said Untapped Founder and CEO Jim Chu in the joint announcement. “It enables a seamless process for merchants and their customers to buy, sell and get paid. We’re excited to use Smart Asset Financing to greatly increase access to financial services across Nigeria.”

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