Fintech startup, Awabah Eyes One Million New Pension Users by 2026

Fintech startup, Awabah Eyes One Million New Pension Users by 2026

Quick Reads:

• Awabah’s “Pension Direct” was unveiled in Lagos on Thursday, built with TeamApt and running on the Moniepoint POS network.
• Traders, artisans, transport workers and gig workers can register at any participating POS point and set up automatic contributions.
• Rollout starts in Lagos, Edo, Abuja and the South-East, with roadshows and radio campaigns to follow.
• Awabah eventually plans to add micro-insurance, savings bonds and capital market products through the same network.

Nigerian fintech startup Awabah has a bold new number in mind: one million pension users, added by the end of 2026, without a single new bank hall opened.

The company unveiled its “Pension Direct” initiative in Lagos on Thursday, and the plan is refreshingly simple. Instead of waiting for Nigeria’s informal workers to walk into a bank, Awabah is walking the pension scheme straight to them, through the same Point of Sale agents they already use to send money, pay bills, and withdraw cash.

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Tunji Andrews said the goal of hitting one million pension users rests entirely on meeting people where they already transact. Built in partnership with TeamApt and powered by the Moniepoint POS network, Pension Direct lets traders, artisans, transport operators, and gig workers register for a pension, pick a Pension Fund Administrator, and set up automatic contributions, all at a neighbourhood POS stand, no smartphone or banking app needed.

Here’s how it works: a customer visits a participating POS location, selects a PFA, submits basic details, and chooses how often they want to contribute, daily, weekly, or monthly. They then authorise a direct-debit mandate on their bank card, and deductions happen automatically from there. It’s designed to solve a very specific problem: irregular earners struggle to save consistently for retirement when the process requires paperwork, smartphones, or trips to a bank branch they may not trust or have access to.

Andrews explained that Awabah leaned on agency banking because POS operators are already trusted, familiar faces in rural and underserved communities, even where smartphones and mobile banking apps haven’t fully caught on. The company plans to back the push with roadshows, radio jingles, billboards, and grassroots campaigns, starting in Lagos, Edo, Abuja, and the South-East before scaling further.

TeamApt’s Implementation Manager, Emmanuella Edeh, said the partnership is really about bridging the gap between formal financial systems and the unbanked. She noted that many people at the grassroots aren’t tech-savvy and don’t own smartphones, which makes POS terminals a practical, offline gateway into digital pension services. The system, she added, adjusts registration requirements automatically depending on which PFA a customer picks.

Uche Uzoebo, Managing Director and CEO of the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility, backed the initiative too, saying it could meaningfully boost national pension coverage, and called on other agent network operators to try similar models in underserved regions.

It’s not without challenges. Stakeholders at the unveiling pointed to poor network connectivity in remote areas, settlement delays, low customer literacy, and Nigeria’s continued reliance on cash as real obstacles to scaling nationwide. Andrews said Awabah is already exploring offline-capable technology and geo-mapping participating POS terminals so customers can easily find the nearest service point.

Longer term, the company wants to use the same distribution network to sell more than pensions, think micro-insurance, savings bonds, and capital market products, all through the same POS counters that already form the backbone of financial access for millions of Nigerians.