Nigerian fintech startup, Kippa, is planning to lay off some of its employees by the end of the year but the exact number of employees affected has not been disclosed.
This decision comes as they are discontinuing their offline payments product, KippaPay, which will stop operating on November 15.
Kennedy Ekezie, who is the co-founder and CEO of Kippa, expressed that this decision was tough but necessary. He mentioned that the company will assist their merchants and partners in transitioning away from KippaPay and resolving any pending settlements.
The reason for discontinuing KippaPay is to streamline their product offerings for better profitability.
Kippa originally started as a bookkeeping platform for small and medium businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. In April 2023, they introduced KippaPay, a payment solution allowing users to send and receive payments from customers and automate extended payment transactions.
This move was aimed at gaining deeper insights into customer transactions and providing tailored products over time.
Following the launch of KippaPay, the Central Bank of Nigeria granted Kippa a Payment Solutions Services License to operate as a Super-Agent, similar to well-known agency banking players like OPay and Moniepoint.
The license allowed Kippa to provide POS terminals to over 500,000 merchants across Nigeria, enabling them to offer financial services like cash withdrawals, deposits, bank account opening, and bill payments to their customers.