By Segun Adeyanju
Two former PoS agents, Bello Kano and Tayo Akintoye, are taking on some of Nigeria’s biggest fintech players; Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay with the launch of their new venture, BellBank Microfinance Bank.
The duo, who started out as friends and business partners in 2018, invested ₦400,000 ($285), into a PoS business at a time when agency banking in Nigeria was still in its infancy. Within three years, that small investment had grown into ₦50 million ($35,700).
Their success wasn’t just about processing withdrawals and deposits. Kano, who built a “mini Computer Village” in Kano State, created a marketplace with nearly 1,000 sellers.
These traders, cut off from physical bank branches, needed financial services and trusted him enough to deposit millions of naira daily.
“We knew we were more than just PoS agents,” Kano recalls. “Even banks wanted us to distribute ATM cards for them, but we said no. We wanted to build our own company.”
That company is now BellBank, a fintech designed to deepen financial inclusion in Northern Nigeria, where 70% of adults remain unbanked despite Nigeria’s 64% inclusion rate.
To challenge industry leaders, BellBank has introduced the BellBox, a compact payment soundbox that announces incoming transfers in real time.
Costing just ₦5,000 ($3), compared to the ₦80,000 ($53), price tag of traditional PoS terminals, the BellBox is targeted at micro-traders like suya and akara sellers who cannot afford agency banking devices.
“With BellBox, you don’t need a smartphone or Internet. Once payment is made, it announces it instantly,” said Akintoye, now BellBank’s CTO.
The device, inspired by China’s payment soundboxes, runs on the Zone Payment Network for faster processing and can last up to seven days on a single charge; a critical feature in areas with poor power supply.
Merchants pay a one-time fee of ₦5,000 for the BellBox and a monthly subscription of ₦1,000. Beyond this, BellBank plans to license the technology to banks and other fintechs through white-label partnerships, creating a steady revenue stream.
Analysts say this grassroots-driven model could disrupt Nigeria’s $13 billion digital payments industry, where Moniepoint and OPay dominate urban centres but leave rural communities underserved.
Still, the challenge is significant. With established players holding large market shares, BellBank’s success will depend on how quickly it can scale and win merchant trust, just as Kano and Akintoye did when they first started as PoS agents.
