Financial technology or Fintech refers to the ecosystem where tech companies and financial institutions use innovative approaches in technology to promote financial services and increase access to finance in the market.
FinTech has won the market in Nigeria. There is a continuous rise in the number of FinTech startups that are continuously bringing something new to the game. Similarly, FinTechs in Nigeria is looking to broaden their horizons by expanding financial sector to reach its un-banked 60 billion. From insurance to banking and investments, FinTech has different sectors in the finance industry. They also have emerging areas like cryptocurrencies and Agritech.
Farm Crowdy
As the first digital agricultural platform in Nigeria, Farm Crowdy is leading the position in the industry by providing a platform that connects farmers with investors who doesn’t have an idea about agriculture to invest. Since its inception, Farm Crowdy has helped more than 25000 farmers and provided over 16,000 acres for farming, gained 70,000 farm sponsorships from investors. Farm Crowdy has been ranked 3.5 stars in google play store.
Piggyvest
Fintechs in Nigeria offers investment platforms that tend to bridge the gap in investments in financial instruments, eliminating info and reducing the hassles associated with financial instruments. Piggyvest offers users financial freedom to put their savings and invest in them. The app launched in 2016 and prides itself as the first online savings and investment platform in West Africa. It boasts 350,000 users.
Wealth.ng
Wealth.ng is introducing high-scale innovation into the market forming a partnership with Paga, leading money transfer sector. Among the industry, there are hardly any existing partnerships because all company compete with each other. But wealth.ng is different. It has bridged this gap by including consumer education as part of its services.
Interswitch
Mobile transaction in Nigeria has become easy, thanks to Interswitch. The company has sold a 20% share of the company to Visa for $200 million in 2019 which brought the company’s valuation to $1 billion. Mobile payment apps are used for utility bills, cash transfers, deposits, and withdrawals and thus Interswitch has gained millions of hearts.
Quidax
Investing in any form of cryptocurrency is still considered as a risky business, hence many people refrain from investing in it. But Quidax is helping cryptocurrency spreading the knowledge and raising awareness for cryptocurrencies and helping people invest more. Quidax started its journey in 2018 and just after one year, more than $110 million was collected from the users in 70 countries and 6 continents.
NaijaFund
As an alternative to raising funds for projects like hospital bills, school fees, etc crowdfunding platforms help users source funds from the public. In Nigeria, NaijaFund is one such crowdfunding platform. They are being operated as a web app for now and constantly working to help people by funding their businesses.
