Nigerian fintech company, Moniepoint has launched MonieWorld, a new remittance platform built specifically for Africans in the United Kingdom.
Entering a saturated but profitable space in the UK–Nigeria money transfer corridor, Moniepoint is expanding internationally, working to solve real problems rather than building just another app promising “faster, cheaper” transfers.
For years, Moniepoint focused on digitising payments for Nigeria’s wide network of small businesses. Now, it wants to be the go-to bank for immigrants who straddle two continents.
In 2024 alone, Nigerians abroad sent home nearly $21 billion. About half of that came from the UK. That’s not small money. That’s why Moniepoint has chosen to start here.
At first glance, MonieWorld might seem like just another company among giants — Send, LemFi, NALA, Taptap Send — all fighting for attention from migrants eager to send money home. But there’s a bigger play at hand. “We’re not trying to be a remittance app,” said Tosin Eniolorunda, Moniepoint’s founder and CEO. “We’re building a proper immigrant banking platform.”
He’s not wrong to think bigger. New migrants need more than just a channel to send money back home. They need banking services that understand where they’re coming from — literally and culturally. They need help settling, saving, building credit, and navigating life in a new system that usually doesn’t see them.
There’s a challenge, of course. The market is crowded and competitive. Many of the popular apps today have strong networks and loyal users. People don’t switch financial tools on a whim — especially when word of mouth carries weight in immigrant communities. Moniepoint isn’t naïve to that.
“We’re not trying to say we’re here to be the cheapest,” Eniolorunda admits. “But because we already have an existing technology, processing rails, and have achieved economies of scale in many places, it’s a means that we can afford to be cheaper for our customers.”
So what’s different? For one, Moniepoint owns its infrastructure. It processes over a billion transactions monthly in Nigeria alone. It has the rails, the licenses, the experience. That end-to-end control is something many rivals can’t claim.
The app, MonieWorld, is already live on the App Store and Google Play. Transfers take seconds. There are no fees. Exchange rates are competitive and adjusted throughout the day. You can pay using bank transfers, cards, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
MonieWorld is launching from London under Moniepoint GB — the company’s first real move outside Africa. But this is just the beginning. According to Eniolorunda, more corridors will follow. “The African diaspora needs a one-stop solution to better meet its financial services needs – and improve on the current fragmented market,” he said.
“Our expectation is that MonieWorld will enhance financial access for everyone involved, boosting UK-Nigeria bilateral trade and benefiting the global economy.”
The remittance business is known for razor-thin margins and fierce competition. But Moniepoint has never shied away from crowded spaces. When it entered agency banking in 2019, it was considered late. Now, it dominates. Maybe history is about to repeat itself.
As for the future? We don’t have all the details yet, but Moniepoint is hinting at credit-building tools and broader financial services for immigrants. If they pull that off — if they manage to be more than just a transfer app — they might just change the game again.
