Fintech operators account for 63% of funds raised in 2021 – Association
The FinTech Association of Nigeria has stated that Financial Technology (Fintech) operators accounted for 63 percent of the $ 1.37 billion in funding raised in Nigeria in 2021.
The association’s president, Ade Bajomo, said this late last week in Lekki, Lagos, at a dinner held during the Fintech Platinum Awards ceremony.
Bajomo noted that Nigeria had been well positioned in Africa and in the global Fintech ecosystem.
He said Africa currently boasts 10 unicorns, seven of which – Jumia, Fluttwerwave, Andela, Chipper Cash, Airtel Africa, OPay and Interswitch – are Nigerian.
“In a similar light, Nigerian start-ups raised $ 1.37 billion out of the $ 4 billion raised in Africa in 2021.
Of these, the Fintech area alone accounted for about 63 percent of all total funding, compared to just 25 percent in 2020.
“The growing investor confidence of African Fintech reflects the continent’s enormous potential due to deeper mobile and internet penetration, a youthful population and increasing consumer sophistication and income, among many other factors.
“When you think about how far Fintech in Nigeria has come, you should thank the incredible entrepreneurs who envisioned, were pioneering and executed strategic moves that have now crystallized into strong and growing companies,” said Bajomo.
According to him, despite the enormous achievements, there is always a need to look back and appreciate how far the Fintech ecosystem has come in the country.
He said that Fintech in Nigeria raised around $ 600 million in financing between 2014 and 2019, compared to more than $ 1 billion raised in one year alone.
Bajomo said that a few years ago, real-time payments and digital (fast) loans were almost impossible.
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He added that Nigeria is now home to around 250 Fintech companies, despite huge infrastructural, regulatory and economic challenges.
The association’s president said that the path was not set to slow down in any way, as by 2025 Africa would be home to 1.5 billion people, most of whom would have grown up with the internet.
He said the continent’s demographics will include a huge group of digitally savvy but underbanked customers, which can be used by homemade and foreign Fintechs.
Bajomo said the Fintech Platinum Awards would create a world-class award that would raise the standard for the best global prices in the sector.
He said the association was strongly positioned to play strategic, critical and objective roles in creating a possible environment for FinTech to continue to thrive in Nigeria.
This, he explained, would be by giving leadership to the country.
