48 hours. That’s the time it takes to binge-watch an entire season of your favourite Nollywood movie, embark on a round-trip journey from Lagos to Accra by road, or, if you’re Moniepoint, deliver a debit card right to a customer’s doorstep. 

As a millennial consumer whose entire personality has been shaped by fast food, fast cars, and non-ending franchises that typically leave their audience furious, I know great products don’t just happen; they’re built with precision, teamwork, and a deep understanding of what users need. 

After I got my own debit card delivered to me in 11 hours, I had to know what goes into making a debit card that gets into your hands quickly. This is important because every extra hour spent trying to get a card could be used to run a business, close a deal, or get things done.

To uncover the story behind the tech, I spoke with Damilola (aka Dami cards) and Philip, our Logistics Delivery Manager. Here’s what I learned.

Card or cash?

Millions of transactions happen across the country every day. According to the 2024 Informal Economy Report published by Moniepoint in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN) and the Ministry of Trade and Investment, 24% of customers prefer to pay with cards, while 18% opt for bank transfers, and that number is only growing.

With the demand for cashless payments rising, security and ease have become financial staples made possible by debit cards. If you’ve read about our card service [Moniepoint], you already know that the Moniepoint card isn’t a regular debit card. From its sleek, identifier-free design to its seamless activation with facial recognition, it’s built for security and ease. 

If you request a Moniepoint debit card today, here’s what your day and your card’s journey might look like as it moves through the hands that design, personalise, package, and deliver it to you.

A day in the life

The day follows a rhythm: you wake up, check your phone, maybe contemplate breakfast, and then dive into work. For your Moniepoint debit card, the rhythm starts earlier. Like lyrics before they become a hit song or a movie script waiting to be filmed, it’s in pre-production as a digital file long before it lands in your hands. Not just your card. Millions of them.

Before your Moniepoint card becomes part of your daily routine and something you can insert into a Point-of-Sale terminal, use at an ATM, or use to shop online, it starts as a digital file generated by our card operations team: no numbers, no names, just materials waiting to be transformed during production.

“The production happens in bulk,” Dami explains. Sheets of card materials are layered and pressed to make as many cards as needed. Security features are embedded, the card’s signature design is imprinted - its first and only outfit designed by our branding team, chips are sealed in place, and the cards are precision-cut to standard. While you dive into your first meeting of the day, catching up on tasks and aligning with your team, the card is done with the phase of silent personalisation, stacked in its glossy blue suit, waiting for its moment.

The hands behind the hours

Then, it comes home. Transitioning from mere plastic to a functional financial tool.

Card operations steps back in, entering the card into our system and linking it to our network. After their homecoming, thousands of cards travel across the country, heading to different states, cities, and people. Each is on its own journey, guided by a distribution network that ensures they reach the hands they were meant for. These teams work across Nigeria, ensuring thousands, sometimes millions, of cards are delivered seamlessly.

But let’s focus on yours.

By mid-morning, just as you’re wrapping up a report, responding to emails, or grabbing a quick snack before your next meeting, your request comes in, triggering a series of backend checks. While this is happening, our logistics partners are already mapping out routes.

The card that’s meant for you, the one that’s already been through checks, sorted, and packed by Philip’s team, is finally called into action. It lands in the hands of one of our distribution partners, who ensures it makes the last leg of the journey. From here, everything moves fast. The card is logged, dispatched, and handed to a logistics partner. Now, it’s en route, on its way to you.

A few moments later…

By 2:30 PM, a notification goes out: Your Moniepoint card is about to be delivered. You’re making notes from your second meeting and settling in for a writing session by this time. Somewhere in the city, a rider is weaving through traffic, envelope in hand, bringing a card from the Moniepoint ecosystem into the real world.

And then, it arrives. A neatly sealed envelope, a quick code, and just like that, the wait is over. You peel it open to find your Moniepoint debit card, sleek, secure, and ready to go. Within minutes, you activate it, link it to your account, and it’s live. Tap, insert, withdraw, wherever you need it, it works. It’s more than just a card; it’s financial happiness delivered.

From design to production, personalisation to logistics, every card you hold tells a quiet story of collaboration, of tech and people working behind the scenes to deliver ease into your hands. Every step is optimised to ensure you never have to worry about access to your money.

If you want to build products that power the dreams of over 10 million businesses and individuals and work with people who move in sync, then maybe it’s time to start your day with us.