GTCO Expands Payment Infrastructure to Compete with Fintech Leaders

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) is making a significant push into the payments space with plans to deploy 200,000 Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals across Nigeria. This expansion aims to challenge fintech competitors like Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay that have established dominant positions in merchant acquiring.

Rapid Growth for HabariPay

GTCO’s fintech subsidiary, HabariPay, has already demonstrated impressive growth processing ₦80.9 trillion ($59.04 billion) in payments last year—nearly three times the previous volume. The company processed 41.4 million transactions in 2025, which jumped 168% to ₦1.2 trillion ($875.79 million).

Strategic Expansion Goals

With its aggressive POS rollout, GTCO aims to achieve:

• Monthly payment volume of ₦1 trillion ($729.83 million) by 2026
• Annual transaction value reaching ₦12 trillion ($8.76 billion)—a 900% increase from 2025
• Deeper penetration among SMEs, corporates, and fintech platforms through embedded finance solutions

Catching Up in the Merchant Payments Race

Traditional banks initially focused on retail and corporate customers while fintechs built extensive merchant networks. These digital payment providers have turned POS terminals into crucial distribution channels serving millions of small businesses.

According to NIBSS data:

• POS transactions processed ₦10.51 trillion ($7.67 billion) in Q1 2025—up 301.67% from the previous year
• Over 5.9 million active POS terminals were deployed as of March 2025, with fintechs holding a significant lead

Moniepoint alone claims more than one million active terminals processing over ₦10 trillion ($7.31 billion) monthly—demonstrating the scale of this distribution channel.

GTCO’s Fintech Evolution

GTCO launched Habari in 2018 as a super app before repositioning it in 2022 to focus on digital payments. The platform now combines payment gateways, e-commerce tools, and POS services under the Squad brand.

HabariPay generates revenue from merchant commissions, bill payment margins, airtime vending, and bulk SMS services—becoming Nigeria’s most profitable bank-owned fintech with a profit after tax of ₦9.74 billion ($7.11 million) last year.