In 2023, Nigerian HRTech company, Pade, distributed ₦11.473 billion in salaries to the employees of its clients, including notable companies like Flutterwave, Famasi, Risevest, Max, and Dantata. This represents a significant 41.1% increase from the ₦7.245 billion disbursed in the previous year, as highlighted in the company’s 2023 Year in Review report.
Since its inception, Pade has handled a total of ₦24.485 billion in salary payments. In addition, the company efficiently managed ₦104 million in tax and pension contributions for its clients in the past year.
In 2020, Seye Bandele—a former marketing lead at Yudala and Konga, and Lekan Omotosho—a former consultant to Nigerian state governments and the FCT, co-founded Pade. Their mission was to create the simplest and most efficient people operations platform. Last year, the startup successfully raised a $500,000 pre-seed to expand its operations.
“Before Pade, I had to manually make remittances, follow up to make sure taxes and pensions were remitted, make payroll manually and check with the team if they have received their salaries,” said Adeola Ayoola, CEO of Famasi, a Nigerian healthtech startup.
Pade’s client base spans various sectors, but the startup has noted that its largest clientele comes from the financial services, construction engineering, and consulting industries. Moreover, in the previous year, the average salary Pade disbursed to over 6,500 employees of its clients was ₦240,000 ($266.90), with 60% earning less than ₦150,000 and 25% earning more than ₦250,000.
Three months after the launch of Pade’s EWA
In October, Pade introduced an Earned Wage Access (EWA) feature, aimed at enabling employees to receive payments before their scheduled payday. This innovation was particularly relevant in mitigating the effects of ongoing inflation across the continent, notably in Nigeria.
“EWA enhances employee engagement and productivity. It’s a win-win for both sides,” commented Seye Bandele, co-founder and CEO of Pade. “It provides employees with access to their earned wages when needed, instead of the typical end-of-month remuneration, helping to reduce financial stress and enhance retention.”
During the last quarter of 2023, following the launch of this feature, Pade processed ₦3.07 million in earned wages from a total of ₦3.59 million requested. The report did not specify the reasons for the partial fulfillment of these requests.
“The turnaround in addressing leave requests, loans, salary advances, and expense reimbursement has been very impressive,” stated David Omojuwa, the HR & Admin Manager at Nikky Taurus, a Nigerian fleet management company.
From onboarding to exit and everything in between, we are committed to advancing the technology tools that empower Africans to be more efficient, accurate, and productive in their daily activities,” stated co-founders Bandele and Omotosho in the review.
