African Fintech Has Potential to Attract Investors, Says Fintech NGR
Emma Okonji
The Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR) has further stated that the African Fintech has huge potential to attract more investors, given
its growing investors’ confidence, which it said was a reflection of the continent’s huge potential due to deepening mobile and internet penetration, a youthful population, increasing consumer sophistication and income, among many other factors.
President, Fintech Association of Nigeria, Mr. Ade Bajomo, who disclosed this in Lagos during the maiden edition of the FinTech Platinum Awards, organised by FintechNGR, in Lagos recently, said Africa can boast of ten unicorns out of which seven, which include: Jumia, Fluttwerwave, Andela, Chipper Cash, Airtel Africa, OPay and Interswitch, are Nigerian.
According to him, African startups raised a total of $4 billion in 2021, out of which, startups from Nigeria alone raised $1.37 billion in that same year.
“Of these, the FinTech space alone accounted for about 63 per cent of all total funding, compared with just 25 per cent in the year before 2020,” Bajomo said.
Bajomo, who doubles as a director at the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF), the Fintech arm of Access Bank, headed by Mr. Daniel Awe, said AFF had given so much support to FintechNGR, and other Fintech groups in Nigeria.
“When you think about how far Fintech in Nigeria has come, you should thank the incredible entrepreneurs who envisioned, pioneered and executed strategic moves that have now crystallized into strong and growing companies today,” Bajomo said.
Today, Nigeria is home to about 250 FinTech companies despite huge infrastructural, regulatory and financial challenges. The trajectory is not set to slow down by any means; by 2025, Africa will be home to 1.5 billion people, most of whom will have grown up with the internet, Bajomo added during his speech at the award ceremony.
According to him, “By launching the FinTech Platinum Awards, we are creating a world-class award ceremony which will mirror the standards of the top global awards we are accustomed to. I must distinguish between FinTech Platinum Recognitions and FinTech Platinum Awards, because Recognitions are solely decided by Governing Council (GovCo) members of the Association, while FinTech Platinum Awards will be conducted through a polling process, backed by a reputable consulting or PR firm as approved by the GovCo.”
Some of the categories for the Recognition Awards, include the Legacy Award, Leadership Award, Female Fintech Trailblazer Award and the Groundbreaking Award, among others.
While Carbon Microfinance Bank won the Groundbreaking Award, Co-founder of Piggyvest, Odunayo Eweniyi, won the Female Fintech Trailblazer Award, and Group Managing Director at Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe, won Fintech Ecosystem Leadership Award. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), won the Regulator of The Year Award.
Bajomo said the Association would continue to provide platforms to engage with regulators, shape the future workforce, promote thought leadership and showcase key impacts of the Nigerian FinTech space, adding that one way this will be achieved is through The Nigeria FinTech Week held annually.
Giving the objective of establishing AFF and its achievements, Bajomo said it was established to identify and accelerate innovative startups in Africa and to be recognised globally as the foremost technology hub in Africa.
Highlighting some of its achievements, Bajomo said in 2021 the accelerator program garnered well over 700 registrations from different startups which was scaled down to 10 finalists. These 10 finalists consisted of five fintech’s, two lifestyle, one energytech, one agrictech and one insurtech. AFF raised a funding of up to 100,000 dollars for these startups and increased the exposure of the Bank’s open banking Application Programming Interface (APIs).
