Nigerian fintech company, Kippa, has announced the closure of its offline payment product, KippaPay, citing profitability concerns. The discontinuation of the product will result in the departure of core team members by December 2023. Kippa founder and CEO, Kennedy Ekezie, expressed the difficulty of the decision, emphasizing the team’s efforts and KippaPay’s impact on merchants. The company will cease KippaPay services for merchants from November 15th, providing support for a smooth transition. Kippa, founded in June 2021, had previously raised $11.6 million in funding and obtained a Payment Solutions Services Licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Despite the closure of KippaPay, Kippa remains a prominent financial management and payments platform for Nigerian small businesses. Established in June 2021, the company initially secured $3.2 million in pre-seed funding in November of the same year. Following this, in September 2022, Kippa raised an additional $8.4 million in a financing round, bringing its total funding to $11.6 million.
Kippa gained recognition in the market when it launched KippaPay, its digital payments offering, in April 2022. This service empowered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to conduct seamless transactions within the Kippa app. Notably, five months after the launch of KippaPay, the Central Bank of Nigeria granted Kippa a Payment Solutions Services Licence to operate as a Super-Agent. This licence enabled Kippa to distribute Point of Sale (POS) terminals to more than 500,000 merchants across Nigeria’s 774 local governments. These merchants could act as agents, providing various financial services such as cash withdrawals, deposits, bank account openings, and bill payments to their customers.
Despite the closure of KippaPay, the company’s strategic focus might shift towards enhancing other aspects of its platform or exploring new avenues within the fintech landscape. As the fintech industry continues to evolve, Kippa may leverage its expertise and experience to introduce innovative solutions tailored to the needs of Nigerian businesses and consumers.
For the latest updates on Kippa’s future endeavors and the evolving fintech landscape in Nigeria, interested parties are encouraged to follow the company’s official announcements and industry news channels.
