Moniepoint, a leading Nigerian financial platform, just built an AI-powered chatbot, ‘M,’ to make its deep data on the informal economy easy for anyone to understand. This isn’t just a product launch. It’s a profound shift in how we understand the sector that, as it turns out, is the nation’s true pulse.
To understand why this matters, you have to understand who Moniepoint is.
Founded in 2015, the company has spent a decade building the core infrastructure for Nigerian merchants. Today, it serves over 10 million active businesses and individuals, processing more than $22 billion in payments every single month.
This gives Moniepoint a unique superpower: a real-time “stethoscope” pressed against the heart of the real Nigerian economy. They see what’s selling, who is saving, and what is really happening on the ground, long before it ever becomes a government statistic.
The “Translator”: Turning Data into Dialogue
For the second year, Moniepoint has compiled this data into its Informal Economy Report. This new edition dives deep into critical issues: unemployment, how traders really save their money, and the brutal impact of rising operational costs. But the company knew a 50-page PDF report, no matter how insightful, would gather dust. So, they built “M.”
“M” is Nigeria’s first AI chatbot dedicated to this sector. It’s built on a Large Language Model (LLM), the same powerful technology behind tools like ChatGPT. But instead of being trained on the whole internet, “M” is a specialist, trained on Moniepoint’s deep, proprietary data about Nigeria’s merchants.
This move is a masterstroke. It turns a static, one-way report into a dynamic, two-way conversation. A policymaker, a researcher, or a journalist can now ask:
- “What percentage of informal businesses save with cooperative unions versus digital banks?”
- “What is the biggest challenge for female-owned businesses in the North?”
- “How has the rising cost of diesel affected profit margins for small retailers?”
“M” is designed to demystify the informal economy, making its data accessible and actionable for everyone.
Why the Government Showed Up in Force
This launch event in Abuja wasn’t a simple press conference. It was a high-level policy summit. The guest list was a clear signal of the project’s importance. In attendance were:
- The Vice President’s office, represented by Dr Jumoke Oduwole (Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment).
- The Minister of Youth Development.
- The Director-General of SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria), Charles Odii.
- Top officials from NITDA, SANEF, EFInA, and the IFC.
They were all there for one reason: The government’s “Renewed Hope Agenda” and its ambitious goal of building a $1 trillion economy is a mathematical impossibility if you ignore the sector that employs over 80% of the nation. As Dr Oduwole stated, this report provides a “stronger foundation for inclusive, evidence-based policymaking.” The government needs this data.
From Insight to Action: The “So What”
The most crucial part of the event was the shift from data to action. Charles Odii, the DG of SMEDAN, best demonstrated this. He didn’t just praise the report; he stood up and outlined the concrete, data-driven actions his agency is already taking to bridge the gap:
- Mass Formalisation: A partnership with the CAC to provide free business registration for 250,000 small businesses.
- Access to Capital: A new program with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to get 1,000 SMEs listed on the capital market.
- Cutting Costs: The rollout of new “shared industrial hubs” to lower operational expenses for artisans and producers.
This is what a real public-private partnership looks like. Moniepoint is providing the real-time “pulse,” and the government is using that data to aim its economic interventions.
As Moniepoint’s MD, Babatunde Olofin, concluded, “The informal economy is not the shadow of our nation’s progress, it is its pulse. Our job is to make sure it beats stronger.” This week, they didn’t just build a new piece of tech; they gave that pulse a voice.
Here is a short video from Moniepoint discussing the new informal economy report.
