After years of limited traction in Nigeria’s fast-growing mobile money space, Airtel Nigeria is rebooting its fintech arm, SmartCash, with aggressive incentives and expanded distribution in a renewed bid for relevance.
Although Airtel is Nigeria’s second-largest telecom operator with 60.89 million subscribers, its Payment Service Bank (PSB), SmartCash, has struggled to convert telecom scale into financial market dominance. As of December 2025, SmartCash had 2.2 million users and generated just $6 million in revenue, a fraction of what leading fintechs such as OPay and PalmPay command.
Nigeria’s mobile money sector has expanded rapidly, with transactions reaching ₦20.71 trillion ($13.49 billion) in Q1 2025, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). But PSBs like SmartCash face structural limits: they cannot offer loans and are subject to stricter regulatory requirements, constraints industry players say have curbed their competitiveness.
Now, Airtel is doubling down.
Speaking during a recent media briefing, Airtel Nigeria CEO Dinesh Balsingh outlined a strategy built around three core offerings: free transfers, cashback rewards, and high-yield savings.
“All transfers are free. We are offering cashback on airtime, bill payments, and wallet transactions, and a flat 15% annual interest on savings,” Balsingh said.
Unlike tiered savings products common among fintech competitors, SmartCash’s savings feature offers a uniform 15% interest rate regardless of deposit size, a move aimed at simplifying the product and attracting deposits.
Beyond incentives, Airtel is expanding its infrastructure. SmartCash is now integrated with multiple banks to enable seamless wallet and interbank transfers. The company has also deployed nearly 60,000 point-of-sale (PoS) terminals across its retail and agent network.
Still, that footprint remains small compared to dominant players. Moniepoint alone has deployed over one million terminals, while Nigeria’s active PoS terminals have surged to nearly six million in 2025, largely driven by fintech expansion.
Airtel has also signalled plans to roll out a virtual card and introduce additional services to deepen adoption. However, telecom-led fintechs in Nigeria have historically lagged behind independent fintech startups, unlike in East Africa where M-Pesa has thrived.
Industry analysts say Airtel’s success will depend not just on incentives, but on navigating regulatory constraints and scaling beyond its existing telecom ecosystem. While the GSMA has argued that telcos’ capital strength and distribution networks could eventually give them an edge, regulatory flexibility similar to what exists in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana may prove decisive.
For now, SmartCash’s reboot marks Airtel’s clearest attempt yet to turn its subscriber base into a meaningful share of Nigeria’s booming digital payments market.
Source: Techcabal