Paga Processes About $1.5 Billion Monthly, Says CEO Tayo Oviosu

Paga CEO Tayo Oviosu says the fintech company processes about $1.5 billion in monthly transaction volume and is valued in hundreds of millions of dollars. He disclosed this in an interview with School of Hard Knocks, which returned to Nigeria to feature the Paga founder.

Oviosu said Paga has about 200 employees. He also said the most revenue the company has made in a single year was about $60 million in today's money.

What Oviosu said

According to Oviosu in the video recording seen on X, “Paga today has over 200 employees, and we are processing over $1.5 billion every month. It’s hard to say in exact numbers but my company is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In revenue for the company we made about $60 million in one year,” he said.

He also spoke about why Africa presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs building financial services companies. He pointed to the continent’s young population, saying about 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25. The youthful population, he said, makes Africa an important market for companies developing financial services for a new generation of consumers.

Oviosu has previously positioned Paga around expanding access to digital financial services, especially for consumers and businesses operating outside traditional banking channels.

Past milestones

Paga has recorded strong growth in transaction volumes since it began commercial operations, processing trillions of naira through its platform over the years. In April 2024, Nairametrics reported that Paga had processed N14 trillion worth of transactions in its first 15 years, according to Oviosu.

He disclosed the figure at an event marking the company’s 15th anniversary in Lagos. He noted that about 80% of the transactions had been recorded in the preceding five years. At the time, Oviosu also said Paga had created about 1,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs through its agent network across Nigeria.

Earlier, in January 2020, Oviosu disclosed that Paga processed more than $2 billion worth of transactions in 2019 across its markets. The figure brought Paga’s cumulative transaction value to about $6.6 billion since it began commercial operations in 2012, according to Oviosu. He said the 2019 transactions had been supported by more than 14.4 million customers using the platform.

Corporate structure

Paga was founded by Oviosu in Nigeria and has built its business around digital payments and financial services. The company operates in a market where mobile money, digital payments and fintech services have expanded as consumers and businesses increasingly adopt electronic transactions.

Oviosu’s comments also highlight the distinction between the value of a private company and the amount of money flowing through its platform. In September 2020, Paga Group redomiciled from Mauritius to the United Kingdom. The group is the holding company for its operations in Nigeria, México, Ethiopia, and the UK. The company took the decision due to bureaucratic challenges it faced in 2019.

For Nigerian consumers and businesses, the disclosed volume shows the scale of activity moving through digital payment platforms as fintech adoption deepens.