CBN Grants RoutePay Licence To Provide Digital Payment Solutions

The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted Full Operating Licence to RoutePay Fintech Limited to provide digital payment solutions in Nigeria.

The apex bank in a letter to RoutePay titled, ‘Payment Solution Service Licence Category’ and dated January 12, 2023, said, “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 CBN 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. The CBN had granted RoutePay an Approval In Principle (AIP) last year. With this full approval, Routepay is certified to have fulfilled all the conditions stipulated by the CBN. 

RoutePay according to Mr. Femi Adeoti (the group managing director, and former managing director of Inlaks) is managed by a team of astute professionals with deep knowledge and understanding of the digital payment systems in Nigeria. Adeoti said, “The CBN approval validates the firm’s trustworthiness in the financial services industry.”

Highlighting the growing need for improved processes, services, products and accessibility in the digital payment and financial technology industry, Adeoti said Routepay is poised to ensuring that “digital payment solutions are made possible and available in our environment without hassles”. 

Speaking on the approval, the company’s chief executive officer, Abayomi Olomu, said Routepay is very intentional about driving digital payment transformation in a changing and demanding world. He further notes that the organization, through its diverse products will enhance connections between parties in the payment space by concentrating on eliminating pain points and enhancing customer satisfaction.

To him, pain points ranges from issues of reliability of channels to specific issues of trust, explaining that some people however still won’t use their cards for online payments because of the fear of fraud, etc, 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. According to him, in spite of the number of service providers in the financial technology and digital payments space, more than 85 per cent 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. 

“We are making digital payment products and services available to all and sundry regardless of their exposure, technology awareness, location, age, affluence, and education. RoutePay products and services are omnichannel – available across all channels of payments including Web, Mobile, POS, ATM and USSD, etc. It also has an array of products and services targeting different market segments, demography, inclinations, and leanings,” he explained. 

He said Routepay will provide access to all its products and services bearing in mind various factors including differences in literacy level, geographical locations, age and the financial capacity of its users among others.