When Visa earlier this year placed a strategic investment in Moniepoint, the Nigerian fintech quickly attained unicorn status, signaling a promising new strategic thrust. Known widely across Africa for operating one of the continent’s largest business banking platforms, Moniepoint’s integration with Visa Direct was initially hinted as a move aimed at opening international channels for cross-border payments and remittances. Today, that vision is coming into clearer focus with the launch of a new service, MonieWorld, which debuts first within the highly competitive UK-Nigeria corridor.
Yet this new platform is not intended solely to capture remittance volumes, insists founder and CEO Tosin Eniolorunda. “Our aim is not merely to become another remittance app,” he asserted. Instead, Moniepoint envisions creating a comprehensive immigrant-focused banking ecosystem. This strategy seeks to provide critical, supportive financial services tailored specifically to the diaspora community—an ambitious move in a significantly saturated financial market.
Indeed, the remittance space between the UK and Nigeria is congested with competition, well-established platforms such as LemFi, Send, NALA, Zepz, and Taptap Send significantly dominating the market. Completing financial transactions homeward is often among the first financial actions a newly arrived immigrant undertakes, usually informed by peer recommendations. Consequently, MonieWorld faces substantial challenges to carving out its place, needing to prove to immigrant communities that it offers a distinct advantage over already strong and familiar providers.
While Moniepoint does enter the market bringing considerable credibility, technology, and scale, industry analysts have nonetheless questioned whether there’s sufficient space or need for yet another remittance-focused platform. Eniolorunda acknowledges these concerns but points out that Moniepoint’s operational scale and technical infrastructure allow competitive pricing flexibility. “We are not fundamentally about competing on price,” he clarifies. Yet given their already mature infrastructure, “cost efficiencies achieved across our various services naturally permit us to offer lower-priced solutions.”
Moniepoint’s approach hinges significantly upon leveraging the existing banking framework it developed over several years. The company’s substantial investment in infrastructure for Nigerian merchants as well as end-consumer financial services—including payments, credit, debit cards, and comprehensive compliance measures—can easily pivot into serving diaspora communities abroad. Thus, MonieWorld is merely the diaspora version of an already successful blueprint implemented successfully within Nigeria.
Initially, remittances will act as an entryway, with broader financial services such as credit building and comprehensive immigrant financial support designated for later development. Immigrant financial services, including platforms that primarily focus on building credit records in foreign contexts, have notably gained prominence in markets such as the U.S. and UK. Companies like Zolve and Pillar built their foothold precisely through such services, reinforcing Moniepoint’s belief in the significant potential of this approach.
UK remittances totaled more than £9.3 billion in 2023, while Nigerians living abroad sent home over $20 billion. Clearly, there is considerable scope and spending power available. However, with competitors largely differentiating their services based on commoditized qualities—such as low prices or rapid transaction speed—Eniolorunda believes only platforms offering richer user experiences and broader financial features will eventually claim success.
Moniepoint’s recently sharpened focus on diaspora banking goes beyond Nigeria, with subsequent expansions planned for populations from Kenya and other African nations who have sizable diaspora communities in countries like Canada and the U.S. This strategic diversification serves not just to widen their user base but also to mitigate risk from the predominantly Nigeria-specific focus that has historically defined their business.
Still, Moniepoint is fully conscious of the high hurdles before it. While confident in MonieWorld’s long-term viability, the fintech remains grounded about the likelihood of market consolidation soon, in which only a handful of players will dominate. With its robust compliance mechanisms, established operations, and extensive local market understanding, Moniepoint sees these competitive strengths as sufficient foundations for long-term sustainability.
Reflecting upon the platform’s entrance into Nigeria’s agency banking market some years ago—which initially also seemed crowded—Eniolorunda finds parallels encouraging: “When we first ventured into agency banking in 2019, the sentiment was similar—yet the industry expanded dramatically, leading to our current prominence. The remittance landscape might reveal similar dynamics. Although competition is high, opportunities remain immense, either through customer acquisition or by diversifying beyond basic remittance services.”
