How GTCO plans to challenge fintechs with 200,000 terminals

HabariPay, the fintech subsidiary of one of Nigeria’s largest financial services groups, processed ₦80.9 trillion ($59.04 billion) in payments in 2025, almost three times the value it handled in the previous year.

Now, it wants to build on that growth by deploying 200,000 Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals nationwide, increasing the value of transactions processed through its terminals tenfold in 2026, according to GTCO’s annual report. 

The expansion comes as Nigeria’s largest banks race to build merchant infrastructure once dominated by fintechs such as Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay. After watching these fintechs turn their PoS networks into engines for payments and customer acquisition, lenders are now investing heavily in merchant businesses through their fintech subsidiaries to capture a larger share of merchant payments. 

“We aim to deploy 200,000 POS terminals nationwide, expanding last-mile access and enabling financial inclusion for micro-businesses and SMEs,” GTCO said in its annual report.  

The group did not disclose how many PoS terminals HabariPay currently operates. However, GTCO’s PoS terminals processed 41.4 million in 2025, while the value of those transactions jumped 168.34% to ₦1.2 trillion ($875.79 million). 

The group categorises PoS services under HabariPay. 

GTCO said HabariPay’s 2026 merchant acquisition strategy targets ₦1 trillion ($729.83 million) in monthly total payment value by deepening its reach among SMEs, corporates, fintech platforms, and institutions through embedded finance products and closer integration with the GTCO ecosystem.

If achieved, annual transaction value processed through its terminals would rise to ₦12 trillion ($8.76 billion), a 900% increase from 2025’s total. 

The rollout forms part of HabariPay’s 2026 strategy to deepen its presence among small businesses, expand across West Africa, and cement its position as a payments business, 

GTCO launched Habari in 2018 as a super app before repositioning it in 2022 into HabariPay, a dedicated fintech subsidiary focused on digital payments. Through its flagship platform, Squad, the company combines payment gateways, e-commerce tools, and a PoS business.

Today, the business earns revenue from merchant commissions, bill payment margins, airtime vending, and bulk SMS services.

According to GTCO’s annual report, HabariPay strengthened its merchant network across SMEs, corporates, and fintechs while supporting GTBank’s PoS expansion through faster settlements, optimised terminal deployment, and automated chargeback systems in 2025. 

The result was ₦80.9 trillion ($59.04 billion) in processed payments and a profit after tax of ₦9.74 billion ($7.11 million), making HabariPay Nigeria’s most profitable bank-owned fintech.

Banks are borrowing the fintech playbook

For years, banks concentrated on retail customers and corporate banking while independent fintechs built extensive merchant networks. Companies like Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay turned PoS terminals into one of the country’s most valuable financial distribution channels, serving millions of small businesses. 

PoS terminals processed ₦10.51 trillion ($7.67 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, a 301.67% increase from Q1 2024, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).  As of March 2025, there were over 5.90 million active/deployed PoS terminals in the country, with fintechs well in the lead.

Moniepoint says it has more than one million active terminals that process over ₦10 trillion ($7.31 billion) in transactions every month. OPay says more than one million businesses depend on its merchant services.

Rather than competing for retail customers, these fintechs built payment infrastructure businesses around merchants. Every transaction generates fees, deposits, customer insights, and eventually opportunities to sell lending, savings, and other financial products. 

Nigeria’s banks are now pursuing a similar strategy to grow their fintech subsidiaries.

Access Holdings’ Hydrogen, launched in 2022, almost doubled its payment transaction volume to 2.8 billion in 2025, while transaction value rose to ₦85.9 trillion ($62.69 billion), according to the group’s annual report. 

The company expanded its payment business into oil and gas companies, government institutions, and large retailers while strengthening its PoS acquiring capabilities to help financial institutions and businesses process card payments more efficiently. It also expanded its e-invoicing platform to help organisations generate, reconcile, and settle invoices within a single digital workflow. 

Unlike HabariPay, Access’s Hydrogen recorded only ₦1.65 billion ($1.20 million) PAT in 2025. This profit gap gives GTCO more room to aggressively expand its merchant footprint while funding future investments in payments infrastructure.

In February 2025, GTBank removed processing fees on all its PoS terminals, making merchant acquisition a strategic priority rather than a direct revenue source.

“Zero POS charges are necessary to our strategy. Most of Nigeria’s small businesses, SMEs, many of them cannot afford the charges, and so to grow this business, we will continue. The zero POS charge is for life. It is not a promo. It will continue for as long as this organisation exists,” Group Chief Executive Officer Segun Agbaje said during GTCO’s Annual General Meeting in April 2026. 

The zero processing charge applies to merchants that maintain a minimum monthly turnover of ₦7.5 million ($5,474). 

The approach mirrors the strategy many fintechs adopted during their early expansion years, where they sacrificed short-term fees to rapidly build merchant networks capable of generating payment volume and cross-selling opportunities.

Beyond merchant acquisition, HabariPay wants its switching infrastructure to account for 70% of industry volumes while investing in AI-driven fraud detection, real-time settlements, and cybersecurity.

Beyond Nigeria, GTCO’s fintech is strengthening its operations in Ghana and is exploring additional opportunities across West Africa through cross-border payment services.

If HabariPay’s PoS play reaches its ₦12 trillion ($8.76 billion) annual payment target, it will still be behind incumbents like Moniepoint. But a successful rollout would show that Nigeria’s largest banks are no longer content to compete only for retail customers but also want to own the payment infrastructure that powers merchant commerce. 

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