Nigerian fintech startup SpacePointe has been chosen by the Edo State Government to help it collect revenue from thousands of informal sector taxpayers daily.
SpacePointe, which develops products geared towards small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a particular focus on retailers, raised US$1.2 million in funding in June 2016.
The startup’s partnership with the Edo State Government allows for easier tax collections and gives the government real-time visibility on all the collections completed.
“Fraud had been a real issue with revenue collections and utilising our platform put all that money that was previously stolen back into the government purse. It was so successful that even the transport unions harmonised with the state to help them collect their union dues,” SpacePointe chief executive officer (CEO) Sayu Abend told Disrupt Africa.
SpacePointe now has a pipeline of other Nigerian states that will be onboarded onto the platform, and has so far processed over one million transactions.
“2018 is geared to increase that by a factor of 10 at minimum just from the agreements that are in place currently,” Abend said.
“Our partnership with the Edo State Government validates our model of enabling payments for the informal sector.”
SpacePointe is now focused on further growth in 2018.
“Our overarching goal is to enable payments for the informal sector in Africa. We will put a strong focus on revenue automation as we have other states that will be launching their revenue automation programs on our platform starting in the first quarter of next year, and so we have a lot to do,” said Abend.
“Our PointePay merchant and agent network will also be a major focus area as we project hitting about 15,000 merchants by the end of 2018. We will not do this on our own and will work with strategic banking and fintech partners across Africa to accomplish this goal.”
