TeamApt Limited is using point-of-sale infrastructure to make pension savings more accessible to Nigeria\u2019s self-employed and informal-sector workers, as the payments company partners with digital pension platform Awabah to bring recurring contributions closer to where millions of Nigerians conduct everyday financial transactions.\n<\/p>\n
The partnership powers Pension Direct, a micro-pension solution that enables workers outside the formal employment system to enrol in personal pension plans and set up recurring contributions through POS terminals.\n<\/p>\n
Moniepoint Microfinance Bank is the first distribution network to offer the service through its POS terminals, giving Pension Direct access to an agent network that spans all 774 local government areas, according to the companies.\n<\/p>\n
The model seeks to address a structural challenge in Nigeria\u2019s pension market. While formal-sector employees can have pension contributions deducted automatically from their salaries, workers such as traders, artisans and other self-employed Nigerians typically lack an equivalent mechanism for making regular retirement contributions.<\/p>\n
TeamApt\u2019s Direct Debit infrastructure is designed to bridge that gap by allowing users to enrol at a POS terminal, tokenise their cards and establish recurring payment mandates. Once set up, contributions can be processed automatically, reducing the need for customers to initiate each payment themselves.\n<\/p>\n
The Chief Executive Officer of TeamApt, Dennis Ajalie, said financial inclusion should extend beyond access to payments to products that help people build long-term financial security.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFinancial inclusion isn\u2019t only about giving people access to payments; it\u2019s about giving them access to the financial tools that help them build long-term security,\u201d Ajalie said.<\/p>\n
He said informal-sector workers have historically faced difficulties making consistent pension contributions because existing financial infrastructure has largely been designed around formal employment and regular payroll deductions. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor millions of Nigerians in the informal economy, contributing consistently to a pension has often been difficult because the underlying infrastructure wasn\u2019t built for the way they earn and spend,\u201d Ajalie said.\n<\/p>\n
Pension Direct attempts to replicate some of the convenience of payroll deductions by combining Awabah\u2019s pension platform with TeamApt\u2019s recurring-payment technology and an existing network of POS agents.\n<\/p>\n
The approach also shifts pension access from a model that requires workers to seek out pension services to one that embeds the service within financial touchpoints they already use.\n<\/p>\n
For TeamApt, the initiative represents an extension of its payment infrastructure beyond conventional transactions. Its Direct Debit service is designed to support recurring payments, with potential applications across pensions, insurance, investments and other long-term financial services.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe created our Direct Debit service to address exactly this, because we know long-term contributions need card tokenisation and recurring mandates that hold up over years,\u201d Ajalie said.\n<\/p>\n
The partnership with Awabah combines that payments capability with pension distribution expertise, with the companies planning to extend Pension Direct to additional distribution networks over time.<\/p>\n
The expansion could widen the reach of micro-pension products among workers whose incomes are often irregular and who may not have access to employer-sponsored retirement schemes.\n<\/p>\n
The initiative comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with the challenge of extending long-term financial products beyond the formal economy. For informal workers, increasing pension participation requires more than the availability of pension accounts; it also requires payment systems that fit the way they earn, transact and save.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TeamApt Limited is using point-of-sale infrastructure to make pension savings more accessible to Nigeria\u2019s self-employed and informal-sector workers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[45467,79,266724,18,22857,19,18135,17,239092,254324,232341,266725,234,235,266726,254326],"class_list":["post-631112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-awabah","tag-business","tag-direct-debit","tag-eire","tag-financial-inclusion","tag-ie","tag-informal-sector","tag-ireland","tag-micro-pension","tag-moniepoint","tag-nigeria-pension","tag-pension-access","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-pos-network","tag-teamapt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117075318299998093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}