“Solve a problem”, Palmpay CEO tells entrepreneurs, wins Legit.ng award

• Palmpay’s Chika Nwosu has won the 2024 Legit Business Names Awards for his role in shaping the future of digital finance in Nigeria
• Legit.ng is honouring business leaders in Nigeria who have achieved remarkable strides during the year in review
• During an interview with Nwosu, he encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on solving problems that require urgent solutions

Legit.ng has honoured Chika Nwosu, the managing director of Palmpay, with the Legit Business Names Awards.

The Legit Business Names Awards, a non-commercial initiative, is committed to honouring exceptional business leaders for their substantial contributions to Nigeria’s economy and remarkable accomplishments throughout the past year.

As a trailblazer in the fintech industry, Nwosu’s leadership has been instrumental in driving Palmpay’s success and transforming the digital payment landscape in Nigeria.

His strategic insight and dedication to innovation have elevated Palmpay’s standing and contributed significantly to the evolution of financial technology in Nigeria.

Nwosu’s outstanding professional journey

With a captivating resume, Nwosu boasts a remarkable career spanning over two decades, adorned with diverse and influential roles in the corporate arena.

Before assuming the role of managing director at Palmpay in 2021, Nwosu demonstrated his leadership prowess through senior management positions at renowned organisations such as Huawei and Transsion Holdings.

His journey reflects a wealth of experience and expertise, making him a standout figure in the dynamic world of corporate leadership.

Palmpay gains resounding popularity in Nigeria

In a mere four-year span in Nigeria, Palmpay has achieved phenomenal acceptance among the Nigerian populace.

The platform recently celebrated a milestone, reaching 30 million users, with a remarkable 20 million joining in 2023 alone.

Nwosu, unfazed by the substantial user base, asserts that meticulous research preceded the commencement of operations.

He insisted that a lot of research was conducted to identify the gaps in the payment ecosystem in Nigeria before operations commenced.

He said:

“When Palmpay was to launch in Nigeria, we noticed that there was also a 10% failure rate in transfers and transactions. We saw it and we knew that if we could solve this problem, definitely people would come to us. And that’s what we did. Now we have 99.5% success rate.”

He added that events surrounding the COVID-19 lockdown of 2021 and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy of 2022-2023 gave Palmpay a lot of edge in business.

Palmpay stands out from competitors

The growth of online businesses in the country has created opportunities for more payment infrastructures like payment gateways.

These gateways enhance the efficiency of payments through various channels that have emerged over time, which include card payments, bank transfers, PoS payments, or USSD.

What seems to set Palmpay apart from the other payment platforms in a highly competitive market such as Nigeria?

Nwosu said:

“If you are in any financial business, one of the things you must have is the trust of the people. One thing we have done in our four years in Nigeria is to earn the trust of Nigerians by the kind of services we are offering and by creating solutions for the problems of customers.”

Then another part is the reliability of our platform. So when you talk about one of the most reliable payment platforms today, Palmpay is one of them.

Nwosu adds that the platform offers several incentives, including cash-back on all transactions. This cash-back can be used to purchase airtime or used to pay different types of bills.

Palmpay sets new user records in 2023

Describing 2023 as exceptional for Palmpay would be an understatement, given the numerous milestones surpassed and accomplishments worth celebrating.

As of September this year, Palmpay recorded 30 million users. Its platform also recorded 1.1 million businesses, including 600,000 merchants and 500,000 agents.

Nwosu said that even though all these milestones have earned Palmpay multiple awards, his major satisfaction comes from the users’ satisfaction.

He said:

“For me personally, what gives me much satisfaction is the kind of happiness I see in the faces of the people who use our platform. Being able to provide a perfect payment solution to the people of Nigeria is our major achievement.”

Palmpay expanding to other African countries

Expansion and developing more products are essential moves for any thriving business. These are areas Palmpay will be setting its focus on in 2024, according to Nwosu.

He said:

“This year, we have expanded to Ghana, but we are also looking at scaling our business to Tanzania and many other African countries and launching new products in 2024. Also, we will be building what I call a super app. Under this platform, we hope to host a lot of other businesses.”

He emphasised that while acknowledging the aspirations for the year, Palmpay’s primary emphasis remains on fostering sustained business growth.

Nwosu emphasises the vital role of staff welfare in talent attraction and retention

Every organisation desires to attract and keep the best talents it can find. In an economy where the best talents are relocating to foreign climes, it becomes quite challenging to keep them.

Nwosu said that to keep top talents, organisations need to care more about their employees’ welfare, well-being, training and growth.

Nwosu said:

“For us, what we do is, we remunerate our people very well. We care about their needs and we also try as much as possible to make people working here feel at home. With this as our focus, we have not only been able to keep our people but have also made them trust in what we are doing.”

Nwosu’s guide to entrepreneurial success

Achieving success is always challenging, particularly when the business environment is not friendly and conducive enough.

Nwosu stressed the critical need for comprehensive research before launching any business venture.

This imperative step follows identifying a gap your business idea aims to address.

He said:

“You have to identify a problem and if you can solve that problem and provide a solution to that particular problem, or that particular need of a population, definitely you are going to be successful.”

He adds that entrepreneurs should exercise patience, as success and profits are realised over time rather than instantly.

PalmPay explains why Nigerian banks lost billions to fraud

In related news, Legit.ng reported that PalmPay listed the reasons behind the susceptibility of numerous individuals to cyber scams, resulting in the unfortunate loss of their assets or funds.

In a published report, the Nigerian fintech company said delayed reporting of fraudulent transactions allows perpetrators to transfer the stolen funds to secure locations.

PalmPay pointed out that failing to report such incidents promptly allows criminals to relocate the stolen funds to ostensibly ‘safe’ havens.

Source: Legit.ng