One Payment Gets Central Bank of Nigeria License

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday (Feb. 4) granted digital payments platform One Payment Limited a license that will allow the company to offer certain types of payments services to businesses across the country, according to a report by The FinTech Times.

The license allows the DPO Group’s subsidiary to “operate as an independent payment solutions services company within the country,” according to the report, which notes One Payment Limited has similar setups in more than 20 other African countries.

DPO Group offers merchant aggregation services to more than 60,000 active merchants, including eCommerce companies, airlines and travel agents. Its network lets merchants accept payments in their chosen currency across local and international channels.

Digital payments make up the large majority of payment volumes in Nigeria and are expected to reach 7.7 billion per year by 2025, a 45% growth from 2019.

“Nigeria represents a key market for any business with a digital focus as one of the most innovative African countries when it comes to FinTech and eCommerce,” said DPO Group CEO Eran Feinstein.

“This new license is an exciting development which will allow us to offer an even smoother payment process for Nigerian businesses looking to grow and reach more customers through secure digital payments,” he said.

Related: Nigerian FinTech Brokerage App Bamboo Notches $15M Series A

Last month, Nigerian brokerage app Bamboo raised $15 million in a Series A funding that it plans to use to escalate its growth while entering new markets and launching more products.

The Bamboo investment platform lets people in Africa buy and trade U.S. stocks in real time using local currency. Bamboo has more than 300,000 accounts in Nigeria, and its API can be integrated to enable asset managers, FinTechs and financial institutions to offer their customers global access.

Bamboo has more than 50,000 people from Ghana on a waiting list after announcing in April 2021 that it was planning to launch there.