Navigating disruptive change: The role of the CFO in fintech

Current trends require CFOs to have a thorough understanding of the company’s business models, sufficient industry knowledge and a robust network, including strong relationships with lenders, regulators and investor groups, and the ability to use predictive insights to guide business decisions. In addition, digital technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning bring new opportunities and challenges to the CFO role, forcing them to stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive in the digital age.

No industry has forced CFOs into these changes more than the fintech sector, which is often at the forefront of disruptive change. New and innovative financial products and services challenge established business models, including practices in the financial markets. This disruption has presented challenges and opportunities for CFOs in the fintech sector.

The fintech industry is fast-paced and constantly changing, making it difficult for CFOs to plan for the future and manage anticipated financial risks. However, this also provides an opportunity for CFOs to contribute massively to the growth and productivity of their organization. As the fintech industry continues to expand and change, the role of the CFO in fintech companies has grown in importance.

The pressure for fintechs to make quick wins and generate revenue poses another challenge for CFOs, who can find it difficult to balance short-term financial considerations and long-term strategic planning. But CFOs must also be able to make investments that will pay off in the long run and anticipate and prepare for future market trends and changes.

The challenge is even stiffer now with several macroeconomic issues, including global economic inflation, skyrocketing costs of living and a possible recession on the horizon.

There is another challenge with the regulatory environment. Innovations in fintech come with the constant use of new and unproven technologies, making navigating this environment a nightmare. While navigating this, CFOs must accurately anticipate and control financial risks and ensure compliance with financial regulations.

Despite these challenges, there are huge opportunities for CFOs in the fintech industry to determine the industry’s future direction. CFOs can do this by devising and deploying financial action strategies that take advantage of new market trends and new business opportunities; they can also help their businesses grow and become more profitable.

It’s an exciting time for CFOs with the opportunity to help the most innovative companies of our time navigate disruptive change and drive financial success.

As CFO of Fincra, I face these challenges while being constantly excited by the opportunities they present me.

Fincra is a payment infrastructure company that provides solutions for online/offline and local/international payments for businesses, fintechs and platforms.

Managing growth at Fincra

The role of the CFO in fintech has become increasingly important to drive growth and profitability. One of the critical ways CFOs can achieve this is through partnerships and collaboration.

Managing growth as a CFO is interesting as I advocate for finance professionals to collaborate with the various business departments and teams to drive growth. I describe it as “managing growth through business partners”.

Understand the industry

A crucial strategy for me to succeed as CFO in fintech is to understand the industry. Since CFOs are deeply involved in determining how businesses evolve, fintech CFOs must have a thorough understanding of the industry so they can be able to follow trends and quickly adapt to significant changes that are constant in fintech.

With this understanding, CFOs can conduct a value creation audit to understand what drives the company’s operations. These drivers include the way the company makes money, its margin advantage and return on capital employed (ROCE) and the reasons for them.

At the same time, the finance team must also consider potential ways to improve these drivers, such as sources of growth, operational improvements and business model changes, as well as how much the company can profit from all of them.

I work remotely at Fincra and spend between two to four hours per day reviewing financial journals, news reports, key macro-economic government decisions, regulatory decisions, industry trends and the opportunities and threats these trends bring to the business.

I spend a significant portion of my day tracking how shareholder value is maximized across the business and other critical tasks/projects required of me.

I also make sure I spend at least two hours in the gym and exercise daily to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and the remaining hours I spend with family and friends and rest.

While working over five years with one of the big four firms, I became interested in the disruptions that fintech firms were creating. That interest led me to the fintech industry, where I have worked for the past four years.

Fincra, in a few words, innovation, speed and value for our clients. As a company, we always seek to create innovative products that meet the essential needs of the market, and the speed with which we do this without compromising on quality is excellent.

Ensuring our customers get the best out of our products is in the DNA of every Fincra employee, and this permeates from the CEO to the lowest-ranking employee.

With Fincra, we saw a problem in Africa’s payments infrastructure and went to work. Seamless transfer of value within the continent and the rest of the world is essential for Africa to achieve true prosperity.

So we’ve built products for businesses, large corporations, fintechs and everything in between that will help receive and send money locally, internationally, online and offline.

Our Pay-In product helps businesses accept payments through the payment gateway and mobile money. We also provide APIs for fintechs and businesses to issue virtual accounts in NGN, EUR, GBP, USD and 10 other other currencies with our Banking as a Service (BaaS) model.

For personal transactions, we also provide POS terminals for businesses to receive payments and provide the complete infrastructure to operate all services. Fincra also offers white-label solutions for fintechs and corporates to launch Agency Banking services.

Fincra also has Pay-Out, which helps businesses with local payments in Nigeria and Africa, and international Pay-Out across 130+ countries. We also offer these solutions via APIs.

With money as the trigger for trade, it is important that companies pay correctly. This goal is what drives everything we do at Fincra.

Fincra is also an enablement provider for Amazon Web Services (AWS). This means we enable startups that integrate Fincra APIs and are currently or planning to build on AWS to apply for AWS Activate Portfolio with Fincra’s unique ID and receive free AWS credits, technical support, resources and more.

About Festus Audu-CFO Fincra

Festus Audu is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Fincra, a fintech company that offers payment infrastructure. With over 10 years’ experience in financial management, he has extensive knowledge of financial models and analyses.

He has an excellent track record of optimizing resources and implementing cost-saving strategies. He is highly dedicated to helping his team find new ways to increase efficiency and maximize profits.

He has experience as a finance professional across various industries, including banking, the service industry and fintech.

*The views expressed in this article are the views of a Business Insider Africa contributor. It does not represent the views of the organization Business Insider Africa.