Financial service delivery is gradually merging with emerging technologies to form the now popular financial technology in Nigeria. Financial technology popularly known as FINTECH is one of the biggest tech/startup sectors in Nigeria.
The Fintech sector in Nigeria has received more Venture capital (VC) funding than other sectors in Nigeria. A lot of FinTech firms use innovative technology in improving the efficiency and efficacy of financial services.
Fintech in Nigeria has helped in supporting and facilitating the supply of financial services. There are a lot of FinTech start-up companies in Nigeria, an estimate of over 300.
Here is a list of Top FinTechs making waves in Nigeria.
5. Remita
Remita, one of the oldest FinTech in Nigeria was founded in 1992 by John Obaro. They assist SMEs, multinationals, state governments, government agencies, NGOs, educational institutions, and individuals to receive and make payments electronically.
This essentially makes it a one-stop shop for payments in Africa for consumers, businesses, and even the government.
Remita is also the default payment gateway chosen by the Nigerian government for its Treasury Single Account (a unified framework for government bank accounts).
Remita is a payment solution that helps individuals and businesses make and receive payments, pay bills and manage their finances across multiple banks.
4. Cowrywise
Cowrywise is a saving platform that was founded on Jan 1, 2017, and was co-founded by Edward Popoola and Razaq Ahmed. The company leverages technology and investment management to re-imagine how personal financial services are delivered to people.
They help their customers achieve their savings and investment goals in a simple, secure and rewarding manner.
Cowrywise is a digital-first wealth management platform, that has a sole vision to simplify and enable access to savings and investment products to the growing population of underserved Africans and Millenials. Cowrywise has helped thousands of Nigerians to build wealth and a healthy budget.
The investors of the company are Sahil Lavingia, Quona Capital, Catalyst Fund, K50 Ventures, Y Combinator, Microtraction, and VentureSOUQ.
The company is well known among students, as well as the very popular “Ope” who has been the company’s customers close pal.
3. Interswitch
Interswitch is one of the earliest fintech companies in Nigeria. The company was founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe. It is one of the Public FinTech companies in Nigeria.
The company provides a broad spectrum of digital financial solutions, including transactions, collection, disbursement, and card issuance.
The company acquired a majority shareholding in Paynet Group, an East-African payments provider in September 2014. In 2015, they launched a $10 Million investment fund for African start-ups in the payments sector.
Interswitch also unveiled its SPAK National Science Competition in February 2018, to help promote and reward excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in Nigeria. In October 2020, Quickteller which is owned by Interswitch, launched the Qtrybe community, a community of 50 exceptional students from Nigerian tertiary institutions to serve as ambassadors of Quickteller and Interswitch on their campuses.
Over 11,000 ATMs have been assigned by the company with more users in Nigeria than anywhere else. Just like Quickteller, Verve is also owned by Interswitch.
2. Piggyvest
Piggyvest which launched on Feb 16, 2016, was co-founded by Joshua Chibueze, Nonso Eagle, Ayo Akinola, Odunayo Eweniyi, and Somto Ifezue and has since gotten over 3,000,000 people who have used
PiggyVest to manage their money better, avoid overspending and be more accountable.
Piggyvest is a platform that helps individuals and businesses manage their finances effectively.
Piggyvest enables Nigerian debit card holders to save little amounts of money frequently with minimal effort.
They automate the process of saving small amounts daily, weekly, or monthly allowing their users to withdraw for free on only set withdrawal dates thereby practically making saving more possible by eliminating the temptation to withdraw.
They are also known to have good investment platforms, where it’s possible to invest in whatever sector, ranging from Agriculture, Real Estate, and Transportation.
Piggyvest was formerly known as Piggybank.
The FinTech company has a funding of $50 thousand. Their investors are Village Capital, Lead Path Nigeria, Ventures Platform, and Vilcap Investment.
1. Flutterwave
Flutterwave is a Nigerian fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.
It’s a Private company that was co-founded by Iyin Aboyeji, and Olugbenga Agboola. The company has its Headquarters in San Francisco, California.
Flutterwave allows its users to make international transactions. They are also known to contribute to the economy of Nigeria as they just employed over a hundred and fifty (150) graduates from their just concluded Graduate Trainee Program.
It has partnered with over 40 banks across Africa in countries like Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, and has processed over 100 million transactions. Flutterwave and Visa launched a consumer payment solution called Alipay and GetBarter in 2019.
Flutterwave also initiated a partnership with Binance, making it possible for Nigerians to buy Bitcoins using the naira currency. Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round in 2021 and at that time it was noted as the largest amount to be ever secured by an African start-up. This has given them the title ‘UNICORN‘.
They’ve been able to secure Investors like Visa Ventures, MasterCard, etc. Flutterwave raised a US$250 million Series D funding round at over US$3 billion valuation in 2022.
A FinTech company is a technology company that provides innovative financial services. FinTech companies are providing better technology to improve customers’ experience of banking and also make financial transactions easy. FinTech companies are helping unbanked people to get the services of banking. There were very less banks in the country but now tech companies have taken over that. The List is computed from personal preference and a series of research. Kindly let us know in the comment section if any FinTech should have been included.
