Moniepoint wants a slice of the $100bn global remittance pie — and it’s baking it with MonieWorld
When TeamApt first appeared on the Nigerian fintech scene nearly a decade ago, it was little more than a whisper in a crowded room. Back then, the landscape was dominated by legacy banks clinging tightly to their share of a cash-heavy economy. Mobile money was more dream than a reality. Few could have predicted that TeamApt’s small, resilient team, quietly building backend infrastructure for banks, would evolve into Moniepoint — now one of the continent’s most audacious financial players. Today, Moniepoint is once again stepping into uncharted waters, and this time, the stakes are even higher.
Earlier this month, Moniepoint announced the launch of MonieWorld, its global remittance service designed to capture a slice of the massive cross-border payments market. In a move that signals not just ambition but a calculated understanding of Africa’s economic currents, the company is aiming to solve a problem that has confounded giants for decades: how to make sending money to and from Africa seamless, affordable, and human.
Global remittance is a battleground lined with familiar names: Western Union, MoneyGram, Wise, Remitly, and newer digital-first entrants like Lemfi, Flutterwave and Chipper Cash. But while others have tried to simplify the experience, hidden fees, long delays, and fractured infrastructures still haunt cross-border payments like lingering ghosts. In sub-Saharan Africa, where remittance inflows hit $53 billion in 2022 according to the World Bank, inefficiencies come with a steep social cost, impacting everything from school fees to medical bills.
Scramble for diaspora billions: Moniepoint is betting that it can do better
Moniepoint`s pivot from TeamApt to Moniepoint was not just a rebranding exercise — it was a chrysalis moment. Having mastered agent banking with over 1.6 million businesses served across Nigeria, Moniepoint built a reputation for gritty reliability where others faltered. It became the quiet enabler of micro-entrepreneurs, market women, and tech-savvy SMEs alike. Now, with MonieWorld, they are hoping to channel that same grassroots credibility onto a global stage.
In many ways, MonieWorld’s entrance feels inevitable. The remittance corridor between Africa and the rest of the world remains one of the most expensive globally. Nigerians in the diaspora, for example, spent an average of 8-10% in fees per $200 transferred in 2023, far above the global target of 3% set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Every fraction lost to fees represents a broken promise for millions sending money home.
MonieWorld aims to be the bridge over that troubled water.
The new service promises near-instant payouts, competitive FX rates, and transparent fees. But the true challenge lies not just in tech deployment; it lies in trust. In the remittance game, reputation is currency. Customers need to believe their hard-earned dollars, pounds, or euros won’t vanish into the digital ether. Moniepoint seems acutely aware of this. By leveraging its existing agent network across Nigeria and its established regulatory licenses, it is positioning MonieWorld not merely as another app but as an ecosystem rooted in real communities.
“What we are building is bigger than payments; it’s about connections,” said Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of Moniepoint, during an internal company address shared with smepeaks. “When a mother sends money to her son studying abroad or a worker in London sends savings home to build a house, that’s not just a transaction. It’s an act of trust, of love, of sacrifice.”
The larger strategy appears clear. By embedding MonieWorld within the Moniepoint suite, they aren’t just launching another product. They are threading remittance into the daily financial lives of businesses and individuals who already trust the brand for their point-of-sale terminals, cash management, and banking needs.
Still, competition looms large. Flutterwave has made strong moves with Send, Chipper Cash has millions of users across multiple markets, and traditional players like Wise boast superior international licensing. But where Moniepoint may carve its niche is by leaning into what it knows best — the messy, beautiful complexity of African markets.
Unlike many startups that chase prestige markets first, Moniepoint’s entire philosophy has been bottom-up. From small shopkeepers in Owerri to motorcycle spare part dealers in Kaduna, they built loyalty not with flashy ads but with working products. If MonieWorld can replicate that model globally, the upside is immense.
Industry analysts are cautiously optimistic. According to McKinsey’s 2023 report, Africa’s fintech revenue is expected to reach $65 billion by 2030, with payments and remittance services comprising a significant chunk. And diaspora remittances, which totalled $100 billion continent-wide in 2022, represent a lifeline more enduring than any single foreign investment wave.
Yet there are hurdles. Regulatory hurdles across jurisdictions, fluctuating FX rates, and geopolitical instability all lurk in the wings. Then there’s the challenge of scalability: serving a Lagos market is different from integrating with banking systems in Atlanta or Antwerp.
But Moniepoint has shown it understands the marathon, not just the sprint. Like a seasoned long-distance runner pacing itself through the heat, it has weathered cycles of Nigerian economic downturns, policy whiplash, and digital payment wars. MonieWorld is the next leg of a long journey, not a finish line.
As global money increasingly becomes a borderless dance, African startups stepping into remittance are not just chasing profit; they are chasing history. For Moniepoint, the leap from Lagos, Nigeria, to the world stage isn’t just about tech stacks or transaction volumes. It’s about reimagining who holds power in the global financial flow — and this time, Africa isn’t just participating. It’s leading.
If MonieWorld succeeds, the ripple effect could be profound: cheaper remittances, stronger SME growth, and tighter diaspora ties. A journey that began with helping market women in Nigeria send and receive payments could end with reshaping the very fabric of global money movement.
And that, for Moniepoint, would be a story worth every pivot, every risk, every quietly fought battle along the way.
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