Onafriq shuts down Baxi agent banking in Nigeria after 5 years, citing unsustainable economics

Onafriq announced October 16 shutdown of Baxi, its Nigerian agent banking business with over 460,000 agents, ending a five-year effort that began with 2021 acquisition of Capricorn Digital. The company cited inflation, naira depreciation, rising costs, shrinking margins, and growth in account-to-account transfers as making offline agent economics unsustainable.

Despite negotiating Baxi's sale since early 2026, talks remained unresolved as of July per UK-filed financial statements showing agency revenue fell 56% to $13.4M in 2024 from $30.4M prior year, with gross profit down 65% to $4.7M. Onafriq also wrote off $4.56M goodwill tied to Nigerian payments business.

As of July 2026, Onafriq Nigeria Payments Limited owed ₦13.8B ($10.4M) to Zenith Bank and ₦6.1B ($4.6M) to Stanbic IBTC Bank in overdrafts (total ₦19.9B/$15M). Baxi agents were told to move funds elsewhere by October, though Onafriq said it transferred agents to another principal bank and gave 30 days to relocate funds.

Nigeria's wider PoS market shows terminals more than doubled from 2.45M (end 2023) to 5.56M (end 2024), but transaction volumes grew only 8% (1.4B to 1.5B), indicating intense competition. Onafriq will continue operating via payments network and card-issuing services.

With agent banking declining nationwide, will you shift to digital-only payments, maintain multiple payment options for flexibility, or explore alternative financial services that better suit your needs in this changing landscape?

SOURCE: https://techcabal.com/2026/10/19/onafriq-baxi-shutdown/