Remita, the Nigerian payment technology platform developed by SystemSpecs, is preparing to expand into markets across Africa, its Managing Director/CEO, Mr Deremi Atanda, has said.
What started as a payroll feature within an HR application has grown into a robust ecosystem that now processes over N60 tn annually, the CEO revealed, describing it as an “ecosystem of rails, products, and services” that is poised for significant growth beyond Nigeria’s borders.
“We’ve become an ecosystem of rails, products, and services,” Atanda said in a statement on Wednesday. “Layering all of that with the many different customers we’ve had, typically every year we process in excess of maybe N60trn in transactions in naira.
And this can only grow, especially as we begin to think of a vibrant Pan-African expansion. We’re at the fringe of that.”
Atanda recounted Remita’s early beginnings, explaining that the platform originated as a feature for salary payments.
He said, “What many people know today as Remita actually started out as a feature within our HR/payroll application. You process salaries, and you just want to pay, so just remit salaries. And by the way, that’s where the name ‘Remita’ came from: remittance. We just took out one ‘T’ and left it at ‘A’.
He also shared the symbolism behind the company’s logo, which features three dots in ascending size. “There are many stories in that logo. It started as a feature, and then we brought it out as a product,” Atanda explained.
Despite early setbacks, including losing a bid for the National Pension Commission contract in 2004, SystemSpecs pivoted to focus on developing Remita as a standalone product.
“The first time we brought it out as a product was to bid for the National Pension Commission. This was in 2004, with the PenCom Act. We packaged this into a product in less than two weeks to take care of end-to-end pensions as it was conceived. Trust me, that vision is still viable today. But we lost that bid,” he said.
Undeterred, Atanda said, “We went back and said, ‘What do we do with this asset?’ If it’s not going to work for pensions, let it become a product. And that’s how we renamed pensions.com.ng as Remita, and it became a product.”
Remita has since grown beyond payroll payments, evolving into a full payment platform offering a variety of services.
“Some people want to do their own payroll and just make payments, so let them have a site to go to. Later, it evolved into not just payroll payments. People wanted to do other types of payments. If you want to do non-salary payments, you go to Remita,” Atanda said.
He explained that the platform has matured into a standalone company, providing a wide range of services, including switching, payment service provisioning, super agency, and terminals.
“We do switch; we do payment service provisioning; we do super agency; we do terminals; everything you can think about. We provide some basic services within the payment space, including payment service advisory,” he said.
Atanda also highlighted Remita’s pioneering role in Nigeria’s first account-to-account switch, developed before the Treasury Single Account was introduced.
He explained, “Before TSA, we had built a rail, Nigeria’s first account-to-account switch, which worked with all the banks. Not many people know that story. Account-to-account. The front of it, the application, and the rail are the first of their kind.”
Atanda described the TSA deal with the Federal Government as “a happenstance”, saying, “The government was looking to solve a problem, and we were looking to get regulated. It’s that term people use; when they say ‘luck’, it’s just a preparation meeting opportunity.”
Reflecting on Remita’s journey, he said, “These have been some of those moments where you feel validated, where the visionary leadership that set the business up feels the vision is being realised.”
Currently, Remita employs over 300 Nigerians and is positioning itself for exponential growth across Africa. “The vision is huge, and we’re committed to that. So, we see exponential growth, and we’re positioning for that,” Atanda said.
The Chairman of Digital Transformation Media Limited, the parent company of eGovernance Nigeria Magazine, Shina Badaru, described Remita’s success as an inspirational example of local innovation with global relevance.
He said, “Remita’s success highlights the critical role of indigenous technology solutions in redefining Africa’s digital economy.
“As the cover story of the next issue of eGovernance Nigeria Magazine, we aim to showcase how homegrown innovation is not only solving problems locally but is also poised to transform markets across the African continent.”
