SOLAD Partners With Quickteller Paypoint To Offer Agent Banking Services
Solad Power Group has joined the Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services Limited agent banking network, known as Quickteller Paypoint as a sub-agent. The move enables Solad to digitise collections and provide existing energy customers with a broader range of financial services, as part of the company’s strategy to build a fully integrated digital power-as-a-service network.
Solad will progressively integrate its sites into the agent network, beginning with its operations in Ogun State, digitising the customer experience and using power supply as the foundation on which Solad customers will be able to pay for more than 5,000 different services at Solad customer service centres. Services will include cash-in cash-out, bill payments, and other agent network related activities. As more Solad sites go live, they will be added to the Quickteller Paypoint network ensuring that these services are available to all Solad customers.
Commenting on the agreement, SOLAD Power Group Nigeria CEO Yewande Olagbende said: “Solad has connected more than 10,000 small businesses with reliable, affordable power and we can now begin to supplement the customer relationship by providing additional value added services in some of our locations. This is part of our long term ambition to build a fully integrated digital power-as-a-service network that is able to develop and deliver a range of services alongside our power distribution infrastructure. We look forward to rolling out more sub-agents as our network of projects expands. ”
Expanding on SOLAD’s digital service ambitions, SOLAD Power Group CEO Denis O’Brien said: “SOLAD has a unique proposition, in that we are delivering innovative power solutions using clean energy to communities that desperately need it, but we recognise that power alone is just the beginning. By digitising the customer service experience and integrating into other service providers we can use power supply as the entry point through which a wide range of digital service propositions can be provided. The more we learn about our customers’ needs and preferences, the better we will be able to design and deliver service propositions that meet their unique circumstances. Our pilot site in Ogun state, in partnership with Interswitch, is our first step in delivering these connected services. We have a firm belief that a mobile led approach will help thousands of business owners across our platform.”
Welcoming SOLAD to the Quickteller Paypoint platform, Titilola Shogaolu, Divisional CEO at IFIS stated that the addition of SOLAD helps IFIS unleash its value proposition to the energy sector especially mini-grid and off-grid segments. Payments and collections have become more convenient for both agents and customers alike. “We are excited about the partnership with SOLAD and believe that with our platform, customers utilizing SOLAD services nationwide in the long term will enjoy seamless ways to pay for electricity services”, she said.
Solad has existing expansion plans to install mini-grid solutions in 12 more markets across the South West of Nigeria over the next 2 years, adding more than 20,000 small businesses to its network. The company is a participant in Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) Mini Grid and SHS component under the World Bank backed Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).
Established in 2017, SOLAD is an investor in and operator of distributed energy solutions that deliver clean, reliable, and affordable power to unconnected, or underserved businesses, services, and homes. We believe that delivering clean, reliable and affordable power to the hundreds of millions of African households, service providers and businesses that are currently not connected to, or are under-served by the grid, has the potential to have an unrivaled social, economic and environmental impact on the continent, catalyzing growth and driving inclusion.
IFIS is a licensed Superagent by the Central Bank of Nigeria. It is the subsidiary within Interswitch Group that has the mandate to accelerate and deepen financial inclusion in the country by acquiring agents nationwide that will deliver electronic payment services to meet the needs of the unbanked, under-banked populace in the country. IFIS partners with financial service providers, merchants, billers, and other organizations across various industry verticals with the aim of increasing their efficiency and outreach through its network of human service interfaces (agents) who render financial, non financial, social services transactions at their respective locations via the Quickteller Paypoint brand.
