Nigeria’s digitally active youths, between the ages of 18 to 35, will be the major drivers of contactless payment transactions in the country.
Industry experts at BusinessDay’s Future of Payment Conference 2025 disclosed. Damilola Salawu, partner at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, said, “The age group between 18-35 is digitally active, and the demography will be the one to jumpstart contactless payment.”
Nigeria has a median age of 18, most of whom are active on the internet, social media, and their mobile devices. According to Ayomide Kolawole, engineering manager, card payments at Moniepoint Inc., this generation likes to adopt new technology, and contactless payments won’t be any different.
He, however, noted that market readiness is holding back contactless payments. “There are not a lot of NFC-enabled devices, which is a major problem. From Moniepoint’s perspective, a lot of POS support contactless payments,” he said.
Read also: ‘Contactless payment is no longer futuristic, but a necessity’
According to Ifeanyi Uzoka, senior business development manager at Palmpay, partnership would be key to the success of contactless payments.
“No single entity can, in isolation, offer contactless payment. For any payment, there needs to be a partnership, hence, it is at the centre of payment,” he stated.
Francis Ogbuka, vice president of sales and business development at Zone, noted, “We are ready for contactless payment because Nigeria has the right demography and regulatory backing for this.
“AI has been around for three decades, and we started using it when ChatGPT ruled out, hence it is the same for Blockchain, when people can see how it can accelerate payment transactions, then they will want to key into it.”
