You have access to our up-to-date list of the top 10 fintech companies in Nigeria, complete with information on their relative strengths and the financial needs they are helping to address.
A few decades ago, nobody would have bet on the widespread adoption of fintech solutions. More than 250 financial technology companies and products have set up shop in Nigeria.
Banks, phone companies, and the government are just a few of the key players; universities and think tanks, investors, incubators, technology, and consumers have all played a role as well.
Revenue from Nigeria’s fintech industry is expected to increase from $153.1 million in 2017 to $543.3 million in 2022, a growth rate of 57%, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.
This is because people are shifting away from using banks altogether because of the convenience of mobile banking apps, especially among the unbanked.
Defining Financial Technology
The term “fintech” means “financial technology.”
By “any innovative ideas that improve financial service forms, by proposing technological solutions that could stimulate the development of new business models or even the establishment of entirely new enterprises,” we have a definition for what we call a fintech company.
Established and new Fin-tech firms in Nigeria share a common goal: to automate and streamline as much of the financial services industry as possible.
Some of Nigeria’s oldest financial institutions have been using technology in their back-end and front-end operations for quite some time, and this may be considered the beginning of the history of Fintech businesses in Nigeria. Do you know that one of the best loan apps in Nigeria, Carbon, is featured here?
This article will walk you through the background of Fintech investment companies in Nigeria, the current top 10 Fintech companies in Nigeria, and the steps necessary to launch your own Fintech business in Nigeria.
Technological developments in Nigeria’s financial services sector have sparked a growth spurt among the country’s fin-tech companies.
Top 12 Fintech Companies In Nigeria 2023
| List of Fintech Companies In Nigeria 2023 | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Name |
| #1 | Paystack |
| #2 | Flutter Wave |
| #3 | Paga |
| #4 | Piggy Vest |
| #5 | Interswitch |
| #6 | E-transact |
| #7 | Carbon Pay later |
| #8 | Remita |
| #9 | Vogue Pay |
| #10 | Kuda Bank |
Not in any particular order, l isted below are just a few of Nigeria’s most promising fintech startups, all of which are working to bring financial services to the country’s large but underserved unbanked population, expand access to financial services generally, and facilitate more convenient and secure methods of making and receiving payments.
As of the writing of this article, the following are the top 10 leading fin-tech companies.
Related: Top 10 Best mobile banking apps in Nigeria
1 PayStack
PayStack takes the first spot as the best fintech company in Nigeria. It is a fin-tech payment solution is arguably the leading and ever-growing fintech company in Nigeria.
Using the Paystack online payment gateway, you can create invoices and payment pages to accept payments.
Paystack is a platform for online payments that standardizes the experience for both customers and merchants.
One of the leading Fin-tech firms in Nigeria, PayStack facilitates the acceptance of MasterCard, Visa, and Verve cards from customers around the world.
2. FlutterWave
Even if you tossed yourself in a hole since birth, you’ve most likely found out about Flutterwave. On the off chance that you haven’t nonetheless, we have you covered.
Flutterwave is a payment startup by Andela co-founder Iyin Aboyeji. Flutter-wave completes payment services from more than 68 online payment gateways in Nigeria.
This includes mobile money and places them under one platform. The service is presently active and can receive and send money in more than 30 African nations.
Flutterwave provides technology, infrastructure and services to allow global merchants, payment service providers, and Pan African banks to acknowledge and process payments on any channel (Web, Mobile, ATM and POS).
They help organizations in Africa go global by smoothening the exchange of funds in 150 monetary standards.
3. Paga
The goal of Paga was to transfer money without charge, regardless if it is a major piece of the business, an ever-increasing number of features are executed in the application.
Presently, you can pay bills, make bank deposits and even pay in certain stores. Filling these gaps, it is one of the top fintech companies in Nigeria.
Pagatech launched in Nigeria to profit from the buildup of cash money in the financial industry and to execute financial services for all residents in Africa. The Nigerian banking sector can be difficult to access all over Nigeria.
However, with the dawn of mobile phones and telecoms engineering, extraordinary efforts in achieving a sizable piece of the nation’s population have been made through Paga.
Related: Top 10 Highest Currencies in Africa
4. PiggyVest
PiggyVest is an online savings platform that empowers savers to put away funds that they would prefer not to withdraw effectively.
They can save as small as $1 per day and afterward limit when they withdraw their savings to explicit set dates of choice.
Dissimilar to a normal bank’s savings account, where you can access the money whenever, PiggyVest enables its users to keep up their savings discipline while building their savings culture, as they save towards something important.
5. Interswitch
Interswitch is an Africa-centered integrated digital payments and commerce company.
It encourages the electronic circulation of money just as the exchange of value among individuals and associations on a convenient and steady basis.
The company started operations in 2002 as a transaction switching and electronic payments processing company.
The vision is to fabricate and manage payment infrastructure just as convey inventive payment products and transaction services all through the African continent.
6. E-Transact
eTranzact, launched in 2003, is a multi-application, multi-network and multi-channel electronic payment platform that supports every significant network; including AMEX, VISA and MasterCard.
eTranzact is one of the Fintech companies in Nigeria designed as a credible option in contrast to all transaction which are right now cash or check based.
The platform capacity is with the end goal that any arrangement driven by customer payment can be automated on the platform.
eTranzact as a Switch processes payment requests from various channels – Web, ATM,POS, mobile-utilizing automated procedures.
The switching platform validates transaction requests subsequent to running security checks on the payment cards.
7. Carbon Paylater
Paylater, now Carbon is one of the best loan apps in Nigeria that gives short loans through its mobile app, making the process paperless and quick as could be.
Their services are now accessible in Nigeria. The excellence of the Paylater app is that it is really simple to utilize, quick, well designed and works properly.
PayLater is a Nigerian lending platform owned by One Finance Limited. Pay later started operation around 2016.
It is one of the platforms where anyone can borrow money online instantly in Nigeria. The truth is, this problem-solving company is filling a huge gap.
The beneficial thing about this platform is that; In contrast to banks where you need to visit and fill loads of forms, PayLater gives you a credit without meeting you up close and personal.
8. Remita
Voted severally as Nigeria’s Software of the Year, Remita is a pacesetter for Fintech companies in Nigeria.
They help associations (SMEs, Multinationals, State Governments, Government Agencies, NGOs, Schools and Educational Institutions, and Individuals to Receive and Make payments electronically.
Developed by SystemSpecs, Remita is in fact a success story and a pride to Africa. SystemSpecs was established in 1991 by John Obaro.
It was then progressively like a business-to-business company selling software to organizations.
Related: Top 10 oldest banks in nigeria
9. Vogue Pay
VoguePay is an online payments processor that has on its own transformed the payments landscape.
Established in 2012, the startup is accessible to lots of local customers, with a simple and minimal effort platform as its principal selling point. No doubt, it is one of the pioneer fintech companies in Nigeria.
In its first year, VoguePay acquired 17,000 users, the greater part of whom were from its homeland of Nigeria. One of its greatest selling points was free integration for the merchants.
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10. Kuda Bank
Kuda Bank has also made this list of top fin-tech platforms in Nigeria. If bank charges gets on your nerves, Kuda bank is for you.
It’s a Completely Online Bank, No paper, your account can be open in minutes. Its meant to be a digital-only bank that runs predominantly on smartphones.
Yes, you get the opportunity to have a customized Verve of Mastercard ATM card, no atm maintenance fees, no transfer fees to other banks, free deposits, and even more.
11. Lidya
Lidya is the future of finance for small businesses in frontier markets.
Their goal is to help extraordinary entrepreneurs access financing and construct a credit score through their instant loan app.
Launched in 2016, the company is set to close a $4 trillion SME credit gap around the world.
Businesses who are searching for $500 USD to $50,000 in working capital can apply on the web or through their mobile phone and get a choice quickly.
To survey credit risk, Lidya utilizes close to 100 data points to evaluate businesses, manufacture a credit score extraordinary to every business, and dispense loans in 24 hours or less.
12. Okash
Okash is one of the virtual loan apps in Nigeria which is a subsidiary service of OPAY and renders short term loans to individuals either for consumption or business.
Okash personal loan has a very fast loan process after which the applicant will receive funds. It is no doubt one of the best fintech companies in Nigeria.
Okash provides financially under-served Nigerians with quick access to short-term loans via their android phones.
Unlike other companies, Okash loan process is approved in minutes once the requirements are met and in such a manner, it fills a huge gap in the financial credit market.
How to Start a Fintech Company In Nigeria
To start a fin-tech company in Nigeria, here are quick steps to guide you below:
STEP 1: Identify your Niche
The order of Fintech truly relies upon different conditions.
It might refer to a particular series of start-ups and companies, or it might apply to initiatives empowered by technological innovations that add to the improvement of the financial sector.
There are numerous dimensions in Fintech to consider, here are some of them:
- Fund Movement, or transactions through giving or receiving payments.
- Fund Placement, or the financing of planned or unplanned financial regulations.
- Data Management, to enable improved decision making.
For starting a fintech company in Nigeria, one must be crystal clear of the target market and the problem to be addressed.
Besides choosing a domain, your product should cater for a specific audience, e.g. a country, a state, or a city.
However, it is always better idea to launch your startup in your locality first, then expand to the global market later if required.
STEP 2: Find out the Regulations
Who regulates fintech companies in Nigeria? The banking and finance industries are strictly regulated and for obvious reasons.
The regulations are the reason financial service industries are tough to break into. Numerous laws have been put in place to ensure that these sectors are protected from crime or frauds.
STEP 3: Know Your Edge
The fintech industry is getting populated as the day goes by. Many creative innovations are already underway.
However, a critical entrepreneurial question to ask is if your product/business will be able to offer something unique and solve problems.
STEP 4: Obtain the Required License
The license required relies upon the FinTech industry you plan to concentrate on for example insurance, banking and payment and so on.
The Central Bank of Nigeria as of late presented a licensing regime called Payment Service Providers required by FinTech’s to work in the e-payment space.
Additionally, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regulates FinTech businesses where the FinTech services being offered by a company includes mobile phones pursuant to the License Framework for Value Added Service (VAS).
STEP 5: Register Your Business
Any individual, local or foreign company wishing to startup a Fintech company in Nigeria must include a separate company with the CAC. The steps for registering a startup company with the CAC is as follows:
- Check for availability of proposed company name with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and reserve it
The information to be included in an Application form for Registration of a Company (Form CAC 1.1) are:
- Address of the registered office of the company
- Authorized Capital of the Company- the regular authorized share capital for a local company is One Million Naira (N1,000,000).
- Particulars of 2 Directors and Shareholders.
- Statutory Declaration of Compliance with the requirements of CAMA by a Legal Practitioner
The required documents for second stage and completion of the incorporation with CAC include:
- Signed and Stamped Copies of the Memorandum and Articles of Association
- Original documents authorizing the incorporation where applicable.
- Photocopy of the information page of the passport or the national identity card of each director or shareholder.
The evolution and development of Fintech in Nigeria is separated into three sections – Fintech past, present and future.
Striking technology (telephone and computer) appropriation by banks is traceable to the post-1986 Structural Adjustment Program presentation, which prompted enhanced competition in the banking sector.
At that point in 2007, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the Payment Systems Vision 2020 (PSV 2020).
The CBN’s activity of 2007 can be considered as the birth of another Era. The PSV 2020 was the first time the CBN set forward a reasonable policy for a future cashless society.
Three Fintech companies in Nigeria were prevailing back at that point – Interswitch (established by Mr Mitchell Elegbe), Etranzact (established by Mr Valentine Obi) and Systemspecs (established by Mr John Obaro).
These are by all account not the only companies from that era, however these are (reasonably) the most dominant.
Fintech companies in Nigeria have run from the launch of the PSV until today.
It has been described by the diversification from switching and payments and the unmistakable quality of mobile payments, expanded start-up action and innovation, a push for monetary incorporation and increasing regulation.
Top Fintech Companies In Nigeria (summary)
Note that the Fintech companies in this article are only a little among all FinTech companies in Nigeria grabbing the opportunity given by technological advances in the financial service industry.
Technology advancement in Nigeria today has made a lot of things possible. With the introduction of online banking, fin-tech solutions are on the rise and making life easier.
Did you find this post informative and helpful? I’d love to have your comments, questions, opinions, in the box provided below.
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wonderfull work. Keep it bro
Good write up but the article doesn’t give the data used to come up with the list. Is this list according the writer’s opinion?
Impressive
Thanks Valentino. Your comment means a lot
So informative