For FairMoney, every PoS terminal is a future lending opportunity

FairMoney Microfinance Bank, the Nigerian consumer-focused digital lender, is using Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals to solve one of lending’s oldest problems: determining which businesses are creditworthy. While rivals race to deploy millions of payment terminals across the country, the digital lender has deployed about 100,000 devices and says it is deliberately targeting merchants whose payment histories can eventually become lending opportunities. “We are not necessarily targeting like two million or three million or one million PoS terminals,” Henry Obiekea, managing director at FairMoney MFB, told TechCabal in an interview. As payments become increasingly commoditised, some fintechs are discovering that the real value of a merchant relationship lies less in transaction fees than in the data those payments generate. For FairMoney, the PoS terminal is no longer simply a payments product, but an underwriting tool. This approach stands in contrast to how the Nigerian PoS industry grew. Over the past two decades, PoS terminals have evolved from a niche payment channel into one of the country’s largest financial distribution networks. Transaction values have grown from just ₦946.22 mi