Tayo Oviosu, CEO and founder of Paga announced yesterday that his payments company now has over 5 million Paga-lets or users.
He set out to solve the inefficiency of payments for businesses and consumers, and make financial services accessible to all Nigerians seven years ago. He has finally gotten 5 million people to believe in him and his vision.
You may say seven years is too long in a country of over 180 million people and a country where the clamour for financial inclusion is a never-ending sound. But it takes grit and courage to pursue a dream in a country where scepticism and inadequate funding are the bedfellows of the average Nigerian Startup. He admits that he didn’t really start real operations until after its Series A in 2012.
We have grown our customer base by 5 million. To the 1 million who joined us in the last 8 months – THANK YOU! pic.twitter.com/pntL9GCeny
— Paga (@paga) August 24, 2016
He also talks about the fact that it took 13 months to get a license to operate.
“So, technically, we really started our major push of Paga in September of 2012. At the time of the fundraise we had 125,000 users.”
In June 2015, Paga hit 3 million users. It took 3 years to reach 3 million but it took him 14 months to gain another 2 million users.
“Despite the macro situation in Nigeria we continue to grow at a strong pace. From Jan 2012-June 2015 (42 months) we processed US$1bn. The next 12 months, July 2015-July 2016, we processed over US$800m”
Kudos to you, Tayo and may your next million be achieved faster that your last million..
