FairMoney Deploys 100,000 PoS Terminals as It Uses Merchant Payment Data to Unlock Business Loans
- FairMoney's PoS terminals aim to serve as future lending opportunities, prioritising quality over quantity
- The bank uses transaction history to identify creditworthy businesses for informed lending decisions
- FairMoney shifts focus from consumer loans to support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises
Pascal Oparada is a journalist with Legit.ng, covering technology, energy, stocks, investment, and the economy for over a decade.
FairMoney Microfinance Bank is taking a different path in Nigeria's increasingly competitive Point-of-Sale (PoS) market, revealing that every payment terminal it deploys is designed to become a future lending opportunity rather than just a payment collection device.
The consumer-focused digital lender has rolled out about 100,000 PoS terminals across Nigeria, but unlike competitors racing to dominate the merchant acquiring market with millions of devices, FairMoney says its focus is on quality over quantity.
Source: Getty Images
According to the bank, the strategy is aimed at helping it identify creditworthy businesses by analysing their transaction histories, allowing it to make more informed lending decisions.
Using payment data to unlock business credit
Speaking in an interview with TechCabal, FairMoney Microfinance Bank Managing Director, Henry Obiekea, said the lender has no ambition to flood the market with millions of terminals.
"We are not necessarily targeting like two million or three million or one million PoS terminals," Obiekea said.
Instead, the bank wants to build long-term relationships with merchants whose payment records provide valuable financial insights.
As digital payments become increasingly competitive and transaction fees continue to shrink, fintech companies are discovering that the real value lies in the customer data generated through daily transactions.
For FairMoney, each PoS terminal serves not only as a payment device but also as an underwriting tool that helps assess business performance and determine loan eligibility.
A different strategy from fintech rivals
Nigeria's PoS ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, transforming from a niche payment channel into one of the country's largest financial distribution networks.
Industry data shows transaction values rose from ₦946.22 million in the first half of 2007 to ₦10.51 trillion in the first quarter of 2025.
That explosive growth has largely been driven by fintech giants such as Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay, which have aggressively expanded their merchant networks to process billions of naira in transactions every month.
As of March 2025, Nigeria had more than 5.9 million active PoS terminals, with both Moniepoint and OPay reporting over one million merchant terminals each.
While competitors view larger terminal deployments as a way to increase transaction volumes, boost fee income and expand market share, FairMoney believes payment data offers an even bigger opportunity by helping it build a stronger lending business.
From consumer loans to SME banking
Founded in 2017, FairMoney initially built its reputation by providing unsecured consumer loans through its digital platform.
However, the company soon realised that many borrowers were using those loans to finance their small businesses.
"A substantial number of customers that we had, that were taking loans, were utilising those loans for business activities," Obiekea explained.
Source: Getty Images
The discovery prompted FairMoney to broaden its focus beyond consumer lending into serving micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
By combining payment processing with lending, the bank hopes to use merchants' transaction histories to offer faster, more accurate and less risky business loans, turning every PoS terminal into a gateway for future financing.
GTBank deploys 200,000 PoS terminals
Legit.ng earlier reported that Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), through its fintech subsidiary HabariPay, is making an aggressive push into Nigeria's fast-growing digital payments market by eliminating processing fees for eligible merchants and rolling out 200,000 new Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals nationwide.
The ambitious expansion is aimed at challenging dominant fintech players such as Moniepoint, OPay and PalmPay, which have built extensive merchant networks across the country.
According to GTCO's latest annual report, HabariPay processed a record ₦80.9 trillion in payment transactions in 2025, nearly tripling the value recorded in the previous year.
Source: Legit.ng
