Onafriq winds down Baxi, its Nigerian agent banking business, five years after buying it

Onafriq, the digital payments network operating across 40 African countries, is closing Baxi, its Nigerian agent banking business, after a review of long-term strategy and sustainability. It cited inflation, naira depreciation, rising operating costs, lower trading volumes, margin pressure and the rapid rise of instant account-to-account payments.

Onafriq, then MFS Africa, entered agent banking by acquiring Capricorn Digital in October 2021, when Baxi had more than 90,000 agents and had processed more than $1.6 billion in transactions that year. The plan was to connect Nigeria's offline cash economy to its cross-border network.

Since then, instant transfers have overtaken point-of-sale: 11.6 billion internet transfers in the first half of 2024 against 6.3 billion PoS transactions, while Moniepoint, OPay and PalmPay took the agent market. Agents move to another principal bank within 30 days; staff numbers affected were not disclosed.

Founder and CEO Dare Okoudjou said the company entered Nigeria with conviction but did not achieve the outcome it set out for. Onafriq stays in Nigeria as a Payment Solution Service Provider, with its payments network and card issuing.