- The partnership expands Crown Agents Bank’s international money transfer offering, so all its customers can transfer funds into Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria.
- Offering represents key growth in Crown Agents Bank’s mobile money services.
As part of its continued growth trajectory, Crown Agents Bank Ltd. has announced it is expanding its partnership with Paga to increase its payments reach in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.
The broadened partnership will see the UK regulated provider of wholesale FX and cross-border payment services, Crown Agents Bank, facilitate international money transfers directly into Paga mobile money wallets and Nigerian bank accounts on behalf of its international customers.
Crown Agents Bank will now be able to offer all of its customers, international and domestic, instant, low-cost transfers to Paga, Nigeria’s widest reaching mobile money network, which has more than sixteen million users. Recipients of remittances will be able to cash out their funds at any of Paga’s 26,068 agents in the country, or use their Paga wallets for paying bills, transferring to others or to top-up their mobile airtime. In addition, Crown Agents Bank’s international development, remittance and other enterprise customers will be able to use Crown Agents Bank’s integration with Paga to reach any account holder at any Nigerian bank, with the same maximum speed and minimum cost.
The move follows on from Crown Agents Bank’s existing work with Paga in Nigeria, which enables domestic transfers for organisations with a local Nigerian presence.
Steven Marshall, Chief Commercial Officer, at Crown Agents Bank comments, “We have been making great strides in the mobile money space since acquiring Segovia and its proprietary payment gateway. Having a significant presence in this space in Nigeria is a milestone event for our growth. By working with Paga, we are able to quickly expand our offering in this pivotal market with the support of proven technology and increase our ability to move money where it’s needed most.”
Jay Alabraba, Director of Business Development at Paga continues, “We are excited to finally launch this collaboration with Crown Agents Bank and bring safe, reliable cross-border transfers for both senders and recipients. Our organisations share the goal of improving remittances and the payments experience for banked and unbanked customers in Nigeria – and hopefully, in the future, we will roll this out in other markets.”
Since launching in 2009, Paga has received widespread recognition for its role in driving financial inclusion in Nigeria. The company operates the widest reaching mobile money platform in the country, with a nationwide agent network of over 26,000 agents and 16 million users to date. Paga is committed to making it easy for people to pay digitally and access critically needed financial services. Last year, Paga announced plans to expand into other countries including Mexico and Ethiopia.
