British International Investment

Moniepoint Inc.

West AfricaFinancial services

Moniepoint is a financial technology company. It provides an all-in-one payments, banking and operations platform for businesses in Nigeria.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

This investment is part of our 'VC Scale-up' strategy to support the growth of the most impactful companies in our venture capital funds portfolio. Our investment in Moniepoint aims to increase economic opportunities for small businesses in Africa, as well as enhance financial inclusion for consumers.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact
  • Economic opportunities through indirect employment creation (SDG 8).
  • Increasing financial inclusion and economic opportunities by improving access to financial services (SDG 10).

How?

How?
  • Direct: Continued expansion of Moniepoint's agent distribution network provides agents with increased customer footfall and service fees, resulting in additional income streams, business expansion and job creation.
  • Economic enabler: The scale up of Moniepoint’s fintech services to micro businesses will help address financing bottlenecks and enable operations efficiency and business growth.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Employees

Nigeria

Offline network of agents who facilitate digital and cash payment transactions in rural and semi-rural areas. We estimate that 40 per cent of agents are low-income and more than 60 per cent are estimated to be female.
Customers

Nigeria

Households and micro-entrepreneurs - unbanked and underbanked borrowers in the formal and informal economy. Intentional focus on borrowers in rural and semi-rural areas and low-income women operating as micro-business owners.

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

By 2024, Moniepoint will support millions of unbanked and underbanked financial customers.

  • We expect the depth of impact to be significant as the agent network is key to Moniepoint’s model. Agent retention incentives include loans, insurance cover and performance rewards.

  • We expect the depth of impact to be significant for borrowers who tend to be unbanked and are unable to access credit from commercial banks. Many rely on risky and expensive service providers for basic financial transactions, informal money lenders or fintech lending platforms with high (and sometimes predatory) annual interest rates.

  • The benefits of financial services are likely to sustain beyond the duration of our investment.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: Capital is not offered in sufficient quantity. Given changes in market appetite for technology companies, commercial interest has been limited.

Risk

Execution Risk
  • Expanding multiple business lines in parallel and expansion into more regulated Financial services can be challenging.
Unexpected Impact Risk
  • Relates to client protection as end-borrowers are unbanked / underbanked and potentially more vulnerable populations with limited financial literacy. This risk is mitigated by monitoring alignment with our customer protection principles for financial services.

Understanding our impact information (PDF)

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.
  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We partnered with our fund manager to co-invest in this company, including by relying on our fund manager's ESDD and ESAP. The ESAP included items related to developing an ESMS, labour and working conditions, occupational health and safety, security and client protection.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-Low

Understanding our approach to environmental and social risk (PDF)

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to reportsandcomplaints@bii.co.uk or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at enquiries@bii.co.uk

  • Key facts
    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.
    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.
    :
    D5087
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).
    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.
    :
    West Africa
    Country

    The countries where the investment delivers impact. Where impact is delivered in multiple countries, this is indicated.
    :
    Nigeria
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Financial services

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.
    Investment type :
    Equity
    Start date :
    January 2022
    Amount :
    $1.5m
    Currency of investment :
    USD
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.
    :
    USA
    2X Gender Finance

    Indicates whether the investment is ‘2X qualified’ using the 2X Challenge criteria. You can find out more here. It only applies to investments made from 2018 onwards, when the 2X Challenge was first launched.
    :
    Fully qualified

    Download as PDF

    Click here to read our data guidance

Related investments made by BII into this company:

Investment name Commitment Region Sector Start date Status
Investment 01 $3.6m West Africa Financial services September 2021 Active
Investment 03 $5m West AfricaWest Africa Financial services June 2022 Active

Back to investments

How we invest

Find out more

Portfolio data

Find out more

Subscribe to receive our latest news and updates

Sign-up here