The road to 10 billion naira in monthly transaction value at Paystack
Customers are now paying over $27.5 million to Paystack merchants every month
In mid-2017, we shared that for the first time, customers were using Paystack to pay over ₦1 billion in monthly transaction value to Paystack merchants. This is how that blog post ended.
You give us purpose, and we’ll need your support to help us reach our next milestone: ₦10 billion in monthly transaction volume 😎 Watch this space ✊🏿❤️
A year and three months later, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve hit our next transaction milestone: customers are now using Paystack to pay over 10 billion naira (~$27.5 million) to Nigerian merchants, every month.
It’s worth noting that this figure doesn’t include the transaction value we process in global currencies, and doesn’t reflect what we process through transfers.
Making the case for digital payments to everyday people
In the nearly three years we’ve been building Paystack, one of the biggest lessons we continue to learn is that many everyday Nigerians are quite literally encountering digital payments for the first time.
If you’re blessed to encounter internet technology and startups every day, it can be hard to appreciate how new all of this stuff is to the average person. Every month, we see thousands of people who’re using their “ATM Cards” online for the first time.
And every month, we also see those same people go from taking their first hesitant, nervous steps into digital payments with one Paystack merchant, attempt more payments with other Paystack merchants as they gain confidence, until they’re racing into the new world of opportunity opened up by the convenience of digital payments.
And for our merchants, they marvel at the the speed with which their customers adopt digital payment channels when they offer them - even relatively newer payment options. A few months ago, we quietly enabled Visa QR as a payment channel. Within hours, and without announcing the new channel anywhere, we were stunned to see hundreds of thousands of Naira paid through that channel.
This is why these milestones mean so much to us. They help tell two stories: the story of Nigerian customers becoming ever more confident in digital payments, and the story of business owners who can do more - dare more - now that they can experiment with new business models, and reach customers all over the world.
A year of growth and change
2018 has been an incredible year for our community of business owners. Here’re snapshots of how far we’ve come together since our last milestone and this one.
Monthly Transaction Value
- July 2017: ₦1 billion/month
- October 2018: ₦10 billion/month
- Growth: 10x
Number of Transactions
- July 2017: 186,530 transactions
- October 2018: 2,964,008 transactions
- Growth: 15.9x
Number of Live Merchants
- July 2017: 3,742 live merchants
- October 2018: 23,523 live merchants
- Growth: 6x
Paystack Team Size
- July 2017: ~16 people
- October 2018: 39 people
- Growth: 2.4x
Our product has also evolved significantly since our last milestone. We’ve shipped hundreds of both major and minor product enhancements, including:
- USD Settlements
- Bulk Transfers
- Granular User Permissions
- Customer Insights
- Automated Chargebacks
- New Checkout Form
- Paystack Go
- Allowing merchants to verify the identity of customers with only a phone number (in partnership with Truecaller)
- The addition of 4 new payment channels - Pay with Bank, Pay with GTB 737, Pay with Visa QR, and Pay with Mobile Money
and much more! Check out the full list of product updates from the last few months.
The transaction that got us to the ₦10 billion/month milestone
Here’re a few details about the transaction that tipped us over.
Amount: ₦4,000
Date: Oct 26, 2018
Time: 6:35 PM
Card: Mastercard Debit Card
Bank: GTB
Merchant: The payment was made to a betting company
The road to ₦10 billion/month
And here’s a timeline of Paystack’s transaction milestones from the last three years.
Thank you
Every transaction on Paystack is a hard-won victory, made possible by a truly remarkable community of merchants, team members, and partners. Thank you to everyone who is helping advance the cause of digital payments on the continent, and massive congratulations to the Paystack businesses who’re rewarded for their hard work with billions of Naira in sales every month!
While we’ve made progress, there’s still a long way to go, and we’ll need your continued support as we aim for our next milestone: ₦30 billion in monthly transaction value 😄
Watch this space ✊🏿❤️
