How do you build a bank without branches, then beat the banks at their own game?
Tosin Eniolorunda didn’t just disrupt Nigerian finance.
He rewrote the rules.
While the big banks slept, Tosin quietly deployed 1 million point-of-sale machines, powered 5 billion transactions, and became the backbone of Nigerian small business.
This is the story of how a soft-spoken engineer launched a fintech empire, and made Moniepoint the most powerful bank you’ve never walked into.
In the beginning, nobody believed in agents.
It was 2015.
Cash was king.
Bank branches were few.
And millions of Nigerians — especially in rural areas, were unbanked.
Traditional banks? Too slow, too proud.
Fintechs? Busy chasing urban elites with fancy apps.
But Tosin had a different plan.
He wasn’t going after the rich.
He was going after the ignored.
He started small, with TeamApt.
His mission was clear:
Digitize financial infrastructure for banks.
Behind the scenes, TeamApt processed billions for Zenith, UBA, and GTBank.
But Tosin saw what the banks didn’t:
The real opportunity wasn’t behind glass doors.
It was on Nigeria’s dusty streets.
In 2019, he made a bold pivot:
Launch a direct-to-consumer service for everyday Nigerians.
Enter Moniepoint.
A new kind of “branchless bank,” built on the backs of everyday agents.
The strategy? Ruthless.
Deploy POS terminals in every village, market, and street corner
Empower everyday Nigerians to become banking agents
Make deposits, withdrawals, and transfers faster than any bank
Moniepoint didn’t wait for Nigerians to come to them. They took banking to the people.
Competitors mocked him.
“He’s flooding the market with POS machines,” they said.
“This won’t last.”
But they missed the point.
Tosin wasn’t selling machines. He was building trust, one transaction at a time.
By 2021, Moniepoint was unstoppable:
Over 1 million POS terminals deployed
$12 billion+ in monthly transactions
Dominating Nigeria’s financial agent network, more than all banks combined
By 2022, 1 in every 3 POS transactions in Nigeria flowed through Moniepoint.
And Tosin?
He became the kingmaker in Nigerian retail finance,
All without a single physical branch.
In 2023, the ultimate validation came:
CBN licensed Moniepoint as a full commercial bank.
No branches.
No buildings.
Just trust, speed, and scale.
It didn’t just disrupt.
It replaced traditional banking for millions of people.
The Financials?
$51.4 billion+ in annual transactions
Serving over 600,000 businesses
1 in every 3 POS in Nigeria is a Moniepoint machine
Revenue in hundreds of millions of dollars
The Impact?
Thousands of jobs created through agency banking
Women and youth earning through POS terminals
Real-time digital banking access across 36 states
Reduced reliance on cash-heavy black markets
Lessons from Tosin Eniolorunda:
1. Go where no one is looking, while others chased the rich, Tosin chased the masses.
2. Build systems, not hype, Moniepoint’s success wasn’t viral. It was infrastructure.
3. Focus on trust, not tech, fintech isn’t about apps. It’s about reliability.
Action Points:
What underserved audience are you ignoring today?
Are you chasing noise or building quiet dominance?
How can you deliver your product to people, not wait for them to come?
Tosin didn’t just build a fintech. He created Nigeria’s first invisible megabank.
And if history is any guide, he’s only just beginning.
