The FinTech Association of Nigeria has said that Financial Technology (FinTech) operators accounted for about 63 per cent of the 1.37 billion dollars funding raised in Nigeria in 2021.
\nPresident of the association, Mr Ade Bajomo, said this\u00a0 during\u00a0 \u00a0the FinTech Platinum Awards ceremony in Lagos State,\u00a0 recently.
\nNoting that Nigeria had been well-positioned in Africa and in the global FinTech ecosystem, he said Africa could currently boast of 10 unicorns out of which seven \u2013 Jumia, Fluttwerwave, Andela, Chipper Cash, Airtel Africa, OPay and Interswitch –\u00a0 are Nigerian.
\n\u201cIn a similar light, Nigerian start-ups raised 1.37 billion dollars of the four billion dollars raised in Africa in 2021. Of these, the FinTech space alone accounted for about 63 per cent of all total funding, compared with just 25 per cent in 2020.
\n\u201cThe growing investor confidence in African FinTech reflects the continent\u2019s huge potential due to deepening mobile and internet penetration, a youthful population, increasing consumer sophistication and income, amongst many other factors\u201d, he said.
\nAccording to him, in spite of the enormous achievements, there is always the need to look back and appreciate how far the FinTech ecosystem has come in the country.
\nHe said FinTech in Nigeria\u00a0 further raised bout 600 million dollars in funding between 2014 and 2019, compared to more than one billion dollars raised in one year alone, adding that few years ago, real time payments and digital (quick) loans were almost impossible.
\nHe\u00a0 further hinted\u00a0 that Nigeria is now home to about 250 FinTech companies, in spite of huge infrastructural, regulatory and financial challenges.
\nThe association\u2019s President said the trajectory was not set to slow down by any means as by 2025, Africa would be home to 1.5 billion people, most of who would have grown up with the internet.
\nAccording to him, the continent\u2019s demographics would include a vast group of digitally-literate but under-banked customers, who could be tapped by home-grown and foreign FinTechs.
\nBajomo said the FinTech Platinum Awards was to create a world class award ceremony which would raise the standard of the top global awards within the sector.
\nHe said the association was strongly positioned to play strategic, critical and unbiased roles in creating an enabling environment for FinTech to continue to thrive in Nigeria.
\nThis, he explained, would be by providing leadership for FinTech ecosystem evolutions in the country and across the continent.
\nThe award for the \u201cFemale FinTech Trailblazer was worn by Ms Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-founder, PiggyVest, for starting something ground-breaking and at the same time, a strong force in the industry.
\nThe award for \u201cGround-breaking Achievement\u2019\u2019 went to Carbon Microfinance Bank, as one of the first organisations to do something innovative in their space, while adhering to ethical standards.<\/p>\n
The \u201cEcosystem Enabler\u2019\u2019 award was received by Banwo & Ighodalo Firm for providing significant resources and support for the Nigerian FinTech ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeadership Award\u2019\u2019 (organisation and individual categories) were awarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Mr Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director of Interswitch.<\/p>\n
This is for paving a pathway on how things should be done in the FinTech space and consistently raising the bar.<\/p>\n
Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder, Future Africa got the \u201cTech Advocacy\u2019\u2019 award for being at the forefront of pushing for increased technological advancement in the ecosystem.He got the award also for fostering opportunities, networks and inclusion to make it a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The FinTech Association of Nigeria has said that Financial Technology (FinTech) operators accounted for about 63 per cent of the 1.37 billion dollars funding raised in Nigeria in 2021. President of the association, Mr Ade Bajomo, said this\u00a0 during\u00a0 \u00a0the FinTech Platinum Awards ceremony in Lagos State,\u00a0 recently. Noting that Nigeria had been well-positioned in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icttelecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299341,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299306\/revisions\/299341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}