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UBA makes agent banking comeback with 46,000 PoS terminals

May 19, 2025

One of Nigeria’s biggest banking groups, UBA makes agent banking comeback with 46,000 PoS terminals to win back small businesses and retail merchants increasingly served by fintechs.

Once a major player in the country’s PoS market, UBA is now racing to reassert itself amid rising competition from fintechs like Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay. The group has deployed over 6,000 Redpay PoS terminals since January 2025, with another 40,000 expected in the coming months.

In 2024, Nigeria’s PoS market processed ₦79.5 trillion ($49.7 billion) in transactions, up from ₦2.3 trillion ($1.44 billion) in 2018, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

That 3,356.5% surge has largely been driven by fintechs, who built extensive agent networks and won merchants over with instant settlements, faster devices, and flexible onboarding.

However, with Redpay, UBA has engineered a catch-up, combining the speed of fintechs with the trust and reliability of a bank. For many merchants, that hybrid may be a better long-term value proposition.

“Merchants commend the terminals’ ease of use, transaction speed, 100% success rate for transfers, and enhanced visibility,” Olukayode Olubiyi, UBA’s head of digital banking, said in an email to TechCabal. “They added that flexibility and reliability have significantly improved their daily operations.”

Omobolanle Salami, a Lagos-based merchant who sells perfumes, told TechCabal that since switching to UBA’s free terminal in February from Moniepoint, she can now easily monitor transactions and perform settlements remotely via her laptop or phone – a crucial improvement for the retailer.

“While Moniepoint allows on-terminal transaction viewing, Redpay offers the added convenience of remote access,” Salami said. “This transaction visibility empowers me to make better business decisions, such as allocating more products to specific stores and advising customers on banks with less downtime for transfers.”

Another merchant in Lagos, Dhikrulahi Hammed, who uses Opay, Moniepoint, and Redpay terminals, claimed that Redpay offers greater flexibility and security on the go.

“Redpay’s remote transaction monitoring on phones/laptops is a significant advantage for security and tracking earnings to prevent discrepancies,” said Hammed, who deals in the sale of electronics. He added that even though Moniepoint also allows monitoring, Redpay’s remote mobile access when away from the shop is a key differentiator.

According to UBA, the new Redpay terminals have processed over ₦25 billion ($15.6 million) in transaction value since January, with adoption especially strong among SMEs in urban and peri-urban areas.

“Although retail merchants such as supermarkets and pharmacies are also benefiting from improved transaction reliability and uptime,” Olubiyi said.

UBA’s PoS rollout comes at a time when the gap between traditional banks and fintechs is widening in customer satisfaction.

A 2024 KPMG report ranked fintechs ahead of banks across various stages of the customer journey, especially in transaction speed, platform reliability, and feature variety. UBA is betting that a more integrated solution—one that pairs payments with banking services—can bridge that gap.

“Redpay combines a user-friendly interface with backend inventory and store management, all tied into UBA’s wider retail ecosystem,” said Onyebuchi Akosa, the group’s chief information officer. “We also offer the trust, reach, and regulatory stability that many fintechs can’t replicate.”

Security is another key focus. With fraud on the rise across PoS platforms, UBA says its new devices are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliant and equipped with end-to-end encryption, tokenisation, secure PIN entry, and remote terminal management.

The upgraded terminals also come bundled with value-added features: agency banking via the bank’s revamped MONI App, real-time fund transfers, BVN/NIN-based account opening, airtime and bill payments, and instant settlements into digital wallets.

“Merchants also get access to analytics dashboards for better business visibility and decision-making,” Olubiyi said.

Fintechs may have redrawn the map of Nigerian payments over the last five years, but First Bank, Access, and UBA helped shape the early terrain.

In 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the cashless policy, driving banks to deploy early-generation PoS systems. However, the next wave belonged to fintechs, who captured underserved markets through agent banking and frictionless services.

Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EnEFInA), a nonprofit focused on financial inclusion, credits agency banking with helping raise Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate from 58% in 2020 to 64% in 2023. Now, banks are fighting to regain lost ground.

The big question is whether UBA can deliver performance, merchant satisfaction, and innovation at scale, especially with 46,000 terminals in the field.

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