Moniepoint Is Betting On AI To Power Inclusion By Decoding Nigeria’s Economy

Following the final close of its landmark funding round, Moniepoint Inc. is moving beyond its roots as a payments and banking platform to explore a new frontier in artificial intelligence. The company is now building tools that aim to make sense of Nigeria’s vast informal economy, a sector often described as the country’s true heartbeat but one that has long remained misunderstood.

Earlier this month, the fintech firm announced the final close of its Series C funding, raising an additional USD 90 M in equity in an extension round led by Development Partners International (DPI) and participation from other existing investors, which brought the total Series C haul to over USD 200 M. The raise confirmed Moniepoint’s position as one of Africa’s leading fintechs, having first crossed the USD 1 B valuation mark in 2024.

Now, Moniepoint is channeling that momentum into artificial intelligence. At a high-level event in Abuja, the company announced the launch of “M,” an AI-powered chatbot built to turn its decade of transaction and merchant data into accessible, real-time insights. The event, which also featured the presentation of Moniepoint’s second Informal Economy Report, drew senior government officials and private-sector leaders

For Moniepoint, “M” represents a shift from simply enabling payments to interpreting the economy itself. The chatbot uses Large Language Model (LLM) technology to translate vast datasets into conversational, easy-to-understand responses. Users, from policymakers and journalists to researchers and small-business owners, can now ask questions such as how rising fuel costs are affecting profit margins or what savings channels are most popular among market traders.

“The informal economy isn’t the shadow of our progress; it’s the pulse of it,” said Babatunde Olofin, Managing Director of Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, during the launch. “Our goal with ‘M’ is to make that pulse visible, understandable, and stronger.”

Representing the Federal Government, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, commended Moniepoint’s decade-long contribution to deepening inclusion and supporting small businesses. “Millions of Nigerians power commerce daily in ways that are unseen yet indispensable,” she said. “This innovation helps us understand them better and design policies that work for them.”

By integrating AI into its operations, Moniepoint is expanding its long-standing mission: to give visibility and structure to the informal sector that drives most of Nigeria’s employment and economic activity. The firm’s network of over 10 million active businesses processes more than USD 22 B in payments every month — a scale that offers real-time insight into how the economy behaves at its base.

That depth of data is what Moniepoint now seeks to unlock through “M.” Instead of relying on static reports or delayed statistics, the AI chatbot allows anyone to explore the country’s economic realities through direct, natural-language interaction.

Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, Moniepoint began as an infrastructure provider for banks before evolving into one of Africa’s fastest-growing fintech companies. Today, it offers an integrated ecosystem of payments, banking, credit, and business-management tools. The introduction of AI, executives say, is the next logical step in making that ecosystem smarter and more responsive to everyday realities.

As Nigeria targets a USD 1 T economy under its new government, accurate and timely insight into the informal sector is becoming essential. Moniepoint’s new AI initiative suggests that private-sector innovation may hold part of the answer by transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.

Ultimately, the company’s investment in AI reflects a broader idea: that inclusion isn’t just about access to finance, but access to information. With “M,” Moniepoint is betting that the future of financial empowerment in Africa will depend not only on who can transact, but on who can truly understand the economy they operate in.