PalmPay

The business was launched in Nigeria in 2019 by Transsnet Financial, a joint venture between Transsion Holdings, the Chinese phone maker behind the Tecno, Infinix and Itel brands, and NetEase, the Chinese internet company. The launch was backed by a $40 million seed round led by Transsion, giving PalmPay a built-in distribution advantage since the app came pre-installed on millions of Transsion phones sold across Nigeria and the wider continent.

On the ground in Nigeria, the company is run by Chika Reginald Nwosu, who has served as Managing Director since PalmPay's early years in the market. Nigeria remains PalmPay's largest and founding market, though the company has since expanded into Ghana, Tanzania and Bangladesh.

PalmPay's scale has grown steadily rather than in one dramatic jump. By 2025 the company reported more than 35 million registered users in Nigeria and a merchant and agent network exceeding one million, with up to 15 million transactions processed daily. That growth translated into outside recognition the same year, when PalmPay placed second overall out of 130 companies on the Financial Times' Africa's Fastest-Growing Companies list, compiled with Statista.

Regulation has followed PalmPay closely, as it has most large Nigerian fintechs. In April 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria temporarily barred PalmPay, along with OPay, Kuda Bank and Moniepoint, from onboarding new customers over Know Your Customer compliance gaps, a freeze lifted about five weeks later. In January 2026, the CBN upgraded PalmPay's licence to national status alongside OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda Bank and Paga, recognising the scale of operations the company had already reached in practice.