TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted full operating licence to RoutePay Fintech Limited to provide digital payment solutions in Nigeria.

CBN granted the approval in a letter titled, ‘payment solution service licence category’, and dated January 12, 2023, according to a statement by the fintech company.

The apex bank had granted RoutePay an approval-in-principle (AIP) last year.

With the full approval, RoutePay is now “certified to have fulfilled all the conditions stipulated by the CBN”.

“We are pleased to inform you that the CBN has approved the issuance of a licence to operate under the payment solution service provider (PSSP) in Nigeria,” the statement quoted CBN as saying. 

CBN added that the approval followed a painstaking review and updates including on-the-spot assessment of facilities at the fintech firm to ensure that it meets developments in the payment ecosystem.

Femi Adeoti, the group managing director of RoutePay, said the company is managed by a team of astute professionals with deep knowledge and understanding of the digital payment systems in Nigeria.

“The CBN approval validates the firm’s trustworthiness in the financial services industry,” he said.

Adeoti, also the former managing director of Inlaks, highlighted the growing need for improved processes, services, products and accessibility in the digital payment and financial technology industry.

He said Routepay was poised to ensuring that “digital payment solutions are made possible and available in our environment without hassles”.

Also speaking on the approval, Abayomi Olomu, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO), said Routepay is very intentional about driving digital payment transformation in a changing and demanding world.

He said the organisation, through its diverse products, will enhance connections between parties in the payment space by concentrating on eliminating pain points and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Olomu said these pain points range from issues of reliability of channels to specific issues of trust, explaining that some people still would not use their cards for online payments because of the fear of fraud, while some are concerned about the cost of using payment channels.

This, he said, could be partly responsible for the low rate of adoption despite all the awareness, products, services, government policies and investment in this sector.

In spite of the number of service providers in the financial technology and digital payments space, Olomu said more than 85 percent of transactions are still done via cash.

 “All these concerns and many others are what we have termed as pain points and RoutePay is all out to fix them in very innovative ways. We are deploying an intelligent customer experience survey system to capture feedback from users from time to time so as to constantly adjust our services, processes, and products to meet the users’ expectations,” he said.

“We are making digital payment products and services available to all and sundry regardless of their exposure, technology awareness, location, age, affluence, and education.”