Founded in 2009 by visionaries Tayo Oviosu and Jay Alabraba, Paga stands as a pioneering giant of the African fintech revolution. The company was born out of a direct imperative to tackle financial exclusion, digitize cash, and streamline money transfers in a highly unbanked population.
Rather than relying solely on smartphone applications, Paga engineered a brilliant hybrid digital and physical ecosystem. They paired an inclusive mobile app and USSD infrastructure with an aggressive, nationwide retail "Paga Agent" network.
This strategy transformed local mom-and-pop shops into physical financial access points where everyday citizens could deposit, withdraw, transfer money, and pay utility bills.
Over the years, Paga has scaled into one of the largest digital payment networks on the continent, processing hundreds of millions of secure transactions worth billions of dollars.
By empowering over 20 million users and creating sustainable income for tens of thousands of micro-merchants, Paga has fundamentally rewritten the rules of commerce and financial inclusion in Nigeria.