The Infrastructure Of Trust: Reimagining Salary Payments In Nigeria’s Digital Economy

In Nigeria’s bustling labour markets, where millions of workers depend on timely wages for survival, late or inconsistent salary payments are more than an inconvenience.

They are a systemic challenge affecting productivity, trust, and economic mobility. But one quiet revolution, led partly by product manager Paschaline Ugwo at Remita, is helping to change that.

Over the past two years, Remita has introduced a series of innovations that have redefined how businesses and government agencies disburse salaries. At the core of this transformation is what insiders call “the salary rail” – an intelligent payment infrastructure that automates salary workflows, tax deductions, pension contributions, and compliance reporting in a single, seamless experience.

“Most people think of salary payments as a button you click,” said Ugwo in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay. “But behind that click is a complex web of rules, dependencies, and validations, especially in an economy like ours, where payroll structures vary widely across sectors.”

Tasked with leading the design of a more adaptive and scalable disbursement system, Ugwo worked across engineering, compliance, and client success teams to build a product that processed high-volume payouts and made salary flows transparent and accountable. Her product vision centered on modularity, allowing clients to configure payroll rules, schedule recurring payments, and receive real-time reconciliation data through Remita’s API suite or dashboard.

The impact has been profound. Several state governments now use the system to pay tens of thousands of workers monthly, while SMEs and corporations report faster onboarding, fewer payment errors, and improved employee satisfaction. “Before Remita’s salary system, we were spending two days every month just on reconciliations,” said Bola Akinyemi, HR Director at a leading agribusiness. “Now it takes us two hours, and we have better visibility than ever.”

Beyond efficiency, Ugwo’s work is beginning to shape policy conversations around labor payment enforcement and transparency. In 2023, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission cited digital payroll systems like Remita as examples of best practice for ensuring wage compliance in the private sector. “We can’t talk about formalization without addressing how salaries are paid and documented,” noted one senior policy advisor who spoke anonymously. “What Paschaline and her team have built provides a template.”

Paschaline’s attention to edge cases, such as varying pay cycles, cooperative deductions, and cross-state compliance nuances, has set the platform apart. “A lot of products fail not because they’re not smart, but because they’re not sensitive to context,” she said. “I grew up watching people struggle with late pay. This isn’t just a product—it’s a responsibility.”

Fellow technologists admire her commitment to user empathy and long-term thinking. “Paschaline doesn’t just ask how it works, she asks how it fails,” said one engineer who collaborated with her on the salary workflow system. “That’s why her products are not only reliable but resilient.”

Looking ahead, she is exploring integrations that allow users to access earned wages on demand, a feature that could reduce reliance on informal loans and salary advances. Discussions are also underway with pension and insurance providers to embed automatic remittances into the salary flow.

In a digital ecosystem increasingly defined by speed and visibility, Paschaline Ugwo’s work at Remita underscores a more profound shift: the move from transactional innovation to systemic impact. Her salary rail is not just a product but infrastructure for trust, stability, and economic dignity.

As the formal labour economy expands, her blueprint might become the foundation on which millions stand month after month.