MFS Africa has announced the acquisition of Baxi, one of Nigeria’s premier super-agent networks. The merger, which is still awaiting approval from Nigeria’s Central Bank, will be the country’s second-largest fintech acquisition to date.
“This is a critical phase in our development.” We hope to take Nigeria’s SMEs to the rest of Africa and the world by integrating Baxi’s network of SMEs acting as agents with our pan-African network. MFS Africa Founder and CEO Dare Okoudjou said, “Our entry into Nigeria gets us one step closer to our aim of making borders matter less.”
Baxi is one of Nigeria’s largest independent SME-focused electronic payment networks, founded in 2014 by Degbola Abudu and Folu Majekodunmi. To the last mile, Baxi offers a cash-in/cash-out service as well as value-added services such as account opening, money transfer, bill payment, and more. Baxi has already processed over USD 1 billion in transactions this year through its network of over 90,000 agents. MFS Africa would turn Baxi into a significant node on its digital payment network after the deal closes, allowing clients to make regional and worldwide payments to and from Nigeria. MFS Africa will also expand Baxi’s offline SMEs offering to a select number of markets within MFS Africa’s 320 million mobile wallets presence across more than 35 African countries.
“We’re ecstatic to be working with the MFS Africa team to broaden our service offerings for people and small businesses.” We believe we’ve only touched the surface of the market’s possibilities. Only 3% of Nigerian SMEs have loan options available to them. We can offer more value-added goods and services, such as cross-border payments, to support Nigerian SMEs in their growth, by partnering with MFS Africa and with the strong backing of our local commercial banking partners,” stated Degbola Abudu, Baxi CEO.
Both companies’ focus areas are complementary. Baxi’s Omni-channel distribution network streamlines and unifies online and offline payments for SMEs and merchants in Nigeria. MFS Africa streamlines cross-border payments by combining them into a single hub.
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