From left: Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, ALTON; Prof. Olayinka David-West, Academic Director, Lagos Business School, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria; Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, Editor-in-Chief, Vanguard Newspapers; Mr. Ayokunle Adaralegbe, Chief Risk Officer, CSCS; Mr. Eze Anaba, Editor, Vanguard Newspapers and Musa Jimoh, Deputy Director, Payment Systems, CBN, during the Vanguard Conference on Mobile Money Market & Fintech with the Theme: Leveraging Fintech Innovation for Unlocking Growth and Competitiveness in Nigeria’s Mobile Money Market and Payment Ecosystem, at Civic Centre, Victoria island, Lagos

Adebayo Obajemu

According to McKinsey report, Nigeria’s fintech companies have raised over $600 million in funding in the last six years, attracting 25% ($122 million) of the $491.6 million raised by African tech startups in 2019 alone – second only to Kenya, which attracted $149 million.

The period under review is 2014- 2019.

In a McKinsey report titled “Harnessing Nigeria’s Fintech Potential.” mentioned the interplay of youthful demographic, increasing smartphone penetration, and concerted efforts to driving financial inclusion as factors that combined to produce conducive and thriving enabler or platform for the fintech firms in Nigeria.

It highlighted some of the feedback against fintech companies ranging from poor user experience, underwhelming value-added from using some of the financial products, low returns on savings, and limited access to investment opportunities.

It also showed that Nigerian fintech companies are primarily focused on payments and consumer lending,  having allotted an aggregate of 39% on payments to consumers, SMEs, and corporate FSP, and an additional 25% to consumer lending.