Airopay woos Nigerian savers with 20% interest rates as it eyes payment market

Amidst fallen interest rates on bank deposits and negative treasury bills returns, Airopay, a digital banking provider, is offering users a 20 percent interest rate when they save on the platform for three months.

The 20 percent offer is part of the company’s Save for Christmas Promo and it is arguably the biggest rate compared to its peers in the market. The company’s interest rates have often ranged in the region of 16 percent annually despite economic headwinds in Nigeria.

The adoption of digital savings is growing in Nigeria driven by ease of use, convenience, and improved speed of the transaction.

Founded in 2014, Airopay has seen 10 million users leverage its platform to make bills payment, transfer funds, save, and perform other basic transactions. The country has seen significant adoption of electronic payment since 2013 when the Central Bank of Nigeria released its policy on cashless. For instance, a breakdown of data obtained from Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that NIP recorded N105.3 trillion from January to September this year while POS deals were worth N6.4 trillion during the same period. In the first nine months of 2019, total NIP transactions amounted to N75.52 trillion while POS payments were valued at N2.24 trillion during the same period. In January this year, instant money transfers valued at N10.3 trillion were reported by

NIBSS, compared to N8.11 trillion in the same month in 2019.

“Airopay is different from other digital banks in Nigeria because of the different bouquet of products we have carefully packaged, tailored to specific customer groups,” Charles Oyakhilome John, co- founder, and CEO of Airopay said.

The company launched its Airopay mobile app version 1.0 on 24 November 2020 after having operated as a web-based platform. John says the app is part of its efforts to plug the gaps seen in banking and payments.

Kelechi Mbah, director of Strategy and Business Growth, Airopay said despite looking like the fintech market in Nigeria is saturated, Airopay has many other services that are innovative and tailored to the actual needs of consumers.

“Our users will enjoy an unbeatable interest rate of 16 percent on savings, access to loans within 24 hours, and bill payment transactions, different from what the general public has experienced,” Adedayo Johnson, the chief financial officer of the company said.