Fintech companies in Nigeria have bought about change from the old traditional banking methods to the new digital and technological methods banks use in providing their services to the public. There are so many Fintech Companies in Nigeria but we will be looking at the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria and the list. In recent times there has been advancement in technology in Nigeria which has come to stay.
This new technology has also emerged with the new financial delivery system. Fintech has made financial services in Nigeria so simple and easy. They have brought about real change for businesses and consumers in Nigeria. Fintech in Nigeria has bridged the gap between financial services delivery and technology. Everyone in Nigeria is talking about Fintech and also enjoying the services provided.
Most of these outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria have helped in eliminating the constant queues that exist in banks and have made the financial industry in Nigeria to be highly competitive. There are so many alternatives people can choose from now. Although Fintech has helped in improving financial services, it also has its disadvantages. But before we continue with our list of the most outstanding fintech companies in Nigeria, we want to let you know more about what Fintech is all about, Fintech companies in Nigeria and their services.
What Is Fintech
Fintech is a short form of the word financial technology. Fintech is a tool used to support financial products and services and make the delivery of such financial services easy. They provide financial services using the software. They are not hindered by legacy operating systems as is obtainable in the traditional banking system. Fintech business is very flexible, fast, reliable and able to bring up innovative ideas. Fintech companies work with experts in the telecommunication industry.
Fintech Companies In Nigeria
Fintech companies in Nigeria use technology to deliver financial services continuously and smoothly without stress. The companies under this category use the newfound technology to compete with the traditional and old methods of rendering financial services to the public. Fintech companies in Nigeria provide more effective and efficient financial services when compared with traditional financial banks.
Over the years, banking services have improved with so much competition existing among individual banks. This competition has made so many banks in Nigeria strive to improve their service delivery to their customers. Even with the improvement, there is still a lot to be done to increase customer satisfaction.
There are network connection issues for people in rural areas thereby making it impossible for them to access some financial services in the banks. There are also laws and rules guiding the banking sector that make it near impossible for people or bank customers to access some financial services like loans. This and many others have brought about frustration to bank customers.
The introduction of Fintech companies in Nigeria has gone a long way to close the gaps created by the traditional banking sector. Fintech has developed better financial tools and services for customers. All of it is still young, but they have introduced new innovations and ideas to address some of the banking issues. They provide online payment gateways, smooth and easy payments, quick access to loan strategy, investment strategy etc.
Read Also: Financial Technology And The Benefits Of FinTech Apps – See All You Need To Know
List Of Services Provided By Fintech Companies In Nigeria
The following is the list of Financial services that the most outstanding Fintech Companies in Nigeria can provide.
Credit Scoring
One of the services that Fintech companies in Nigeria provide is credit scoring and lending services. They provide these services to individuals and small business owners as well who may not be able to access traditional banking services. Some of the Fintech companies in Nigeria that are into credit scoring and lending services include Renmoney and Carbon.
Digital Banking
Digital banking services allow customers to open and manage their accounts online, do transfers, have access to online loans, and make payments without going to any bank branch. ALAT, Kuda and VBank are a few examples of digital banks that you can operate in Nigeria.
Investment Platforms
This is one of the services provided by Fintecg companies in Nigeria. Investment platforms allow individuals to invest in bonds, stocks and other numerous assets. The fintech companies in Nigeria that provide such services include Haka and Cowrywise.
Payment Processing
Fintech companies in Nigeria provide payment services in Nigeria that allow individuals and business owners to accept payments online using their mobile phones or any other devices. Flutterwave, Paga and Paysrack are examples of Fintech companies that offer payment processing services in Nigeria.
Remittance
This is also among the Fintech companies in Nigeria that provide remittance services through which Nigerians living abroad can easily send money access to their families in Nigeria. Transferwise and aWprld remittance are examples of Fintech companies in Nigeria that offers remittance services.
Common Features Of Fintech Companies In Nigeria
Almost all the Fintech companies in Nigeria offer similar services but the following are some of the reasons why one company’s Fintech app will be preferred over the other.
- All the Fintech companies can be used to send and receive money.
- They allow users to pay bills.
- Users can use the app to recharge and buy data on their mobile, and to family and friends.
- Users can use it to shop online.
- You can use the Fintech app to gain access to quick loans.
- You can apply for virtual and physical ATM cards.
- It has available options you can use to create business and individual accounts.
- All the Fintech Companies in Nigeria listed here are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (very important to take note of)
List Of The Most Outstanding Fintech Companies In Nigeria
There are many Fintech companies in Nigeria but we will be looking at the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria.
- Accelerex
- Carbon
- ChipperCash
- E-transact
- Eyowo
- FairMoney
- Flutterwave
- Interswitch
- Kuda
- MoniePoint
- NowNow
- Opay
- Paga
- Palmpay
- Paystack
- Piggyvest
- Remita
Accelerex
Accelerate is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria which was established in 2013. It has taken giant strides towards increasing e-payments across Africa and has surpassed customers’ expectations by meeting the demand for fast and secured Fintech products, services and solutions. It provides support to 95% of Nigerian banks and to so many Merchants across the country.
Accelerate is a reliable, and cutting-edge electronic payment in Nigeria. It has led to the expansion of its brand’s operations in DR Congo, Ghana and Kenya with plans set out to grow the brand and introduce it to other African countries. It has an Accelerex Agent Network Platform (ANP) designed as a web portal to specifically serve all stakeholders in the Agency Banking business and make their business operation more convenient and easy to use.
Accelerex created an SME-tailored holistic solution that takes care of the needs of retailers and all retail business needs to be known as RexRetail. It allows small and medium-sized merchants to digitalise their retail operations around inventory management, payments acceptance, and cashier management while giving them the power to remotely manage store operations and monitor the performance of each of the outlets. It has an outlet payment gateway called RexPay that helps merchants receive payments quickly and securely.
It has a customer-centric approach with a 24/7 state-of-the-art contact centre that ensures quick response to enquiries, swift complaint resolution and customer support. It has field response representatives across the country who are dedicated to providing instant support to its merchants. It has regional offices in the significant geopolitical zones in the country- Lagos, Core North, South East, South West, South-South and North Central which brings Accelerex closer to its customers.
Carbon
Carbon Paylater is a loan app for Nigerians and one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria. It is a mobile app that gives loans to Nigerians thereby eliminating the problems of difficulty in getting loans from traditional banks. The users of this app do not need to present any documents, no guarantor or collateral before loans will be given to them from the platform.
It was established in 2016 with an enticing feature that enables users to buy now and pay later at 0% interest, high-yielding savings and free transfer costs. It also has another feature called Payvest that users can use to save their money. This app obtained a loan of $5 million from Lendable in 2019 and later acquired Amplify Pay which was what made it easy for the Carbon Fintech company to introduce novel banking features.
In the same year, it had total revenue of $10.4 million generated and had given out not less than $35 million as loans. At the AppsAfrica Award, Carbon was among the Fintech companies that received an award as the Best Fintech Solution In Africa.
With all these advantages mentioned above, there are also some disadvantages of using this app which includes poor customer service treatment. Many users complain that the app doesn’t respond to the messages, and emails of users. So their zero-response customer service is what puts people off and makes them think twice before using the app.
ChipperCash
Chippercash is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that allows users to own a Visa dollar and Naira card which helps users to shop on any platform online that allows the use of a Visa card. With ChipperCash, you will be able to invest in USA stocks directly from Nigeria and you can start your investment with as little cash as $ 1 on top US stocks like Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Intel, McDonald’s, Nike, Tesla etc.
E-transact
E-transact is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that provides solutions to payment issues in Nigeria by enabling businesses to accept payments online. This app was founded in 2003 by Niyi Toluwalope who owns other financial service providers like ATM Cardlexcash, BankIT, CorporatePay, Mobile Topup and PocketMoni. E-transact has processed payment requests from different channels like ATMs, POS, Web and transactions that use mobile automation. It also supports networks like AMEX, MasterCard and VISA.
In 2018 the company was alleged to be involved in a fraud case worth N11 billion which led to the immediate removal of some significant directors which caused the removal of the then CEO Valentine Obi as directed by the CBN. This scandal affected the public image of the company and they recorded an after-tax loss of N3.1 billion in 2018.
After this incident, the company was able to bounce back to business the following year with an after-tax profit of N96 million. It received an award as the best Corporate Turnaround and Transformation company in 2019 at the Business Day Top 25 CEO s’ and Next Bulls Awards. Apart from Nigeria, the company operates in the United Kingdom and other African countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
Eyowo
Eyowow is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria with the financial tools to improve your financial lifestyle that makes all transactions possible in one place. This app helps users to grow their money by getting instant interest in money saved on the app. It also provides both physical and virtual master cards to users, used for payment of bills online, sending and receiving money, and recharging airtime and data.
FairMoney
FairMoney is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that operates as a Micro Finance App. The app has so many enticing features like sending and receiving money, payment of utility bills etc. It also gives users 30 free bank transfers monthly anywhere across Nigeria and provides instant loans of up to a million naira to users without requesting any documentation or collateral. It helps users to earn instant interest in their savings just like is obtainable in Opay.
Flutterwave
Flutterwave is one of the outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that was founded in 2006 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji. It has partners in over 40 banks across various African nations with over 100 million transactions they have processed. It initiated a partnership with Binance which has made it possible for Nigerians to buy Bitcoins using the naira currency. Flutterwave has plans set in place to connect African businesses with businesses on other continents with the powerful partnership. The company entered into a partnership with Visa to enable them to launch Alipay and GetBarter which is a consumer payment product,
Flutterwave was valued at over $1 billion after being celebrated for raising up to $170 million. It has raised nothing less than $225 million and has secured over $200 million in funding. When the news of their being valued above $1 billion went viral, the company announced that Flutterwave is collaborating with Paypal to enable businesses in Nigeria and other African countries to receive payments. It is built for both iOS and Android. Flutterwave is the developer of Barter and Rave financial services in use today.
Interswitch
Interswitch is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that was founded by Mitchell Elegbe as an electronic payments processing and transaction switching company in 2002. It is a quick teller app that provides online payment gateways and solutions for online buyers. The financial products that Interswitch offers are online consumer payment platforms, ATM cards, point-of-sales terminals, and Verve. It focuses on business in Africa, a commerce company with integrated digital payments.
In May 2019, Interswitch revealed that it was processing over 500 million transactions in a month and in that same year, it acquired a 60% stake in eClat another healthy Fintech company. It also owns, Smartgov, Verve debit card, Retailpay and many other automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country.
Kuda
Kuda is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that can offer up to 26 free transfers to its users monthly although it is not up to what Palmpay offers to its customers. Kuda is an app that is fast in sending, receiving and transferring of cash. You sign up for the app and also apply for a virtual card in the app. When you apply, Kuda offers customized Master card ATM cards with no transfer fees or ATM maintenance fees attached. It eliminates paper processing and charges by traditional banks. Their services are second to none.
Kuda recently added a new feature that will offer every user the opportunity to own a Uk account while in Nigeria and there is no form to fill out for this. With such a feature, it means you can easily receive money from the UK to Nigeria.
MoniePoint
MoniePoint is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that you can use to send, receive, recharge your phone and data, pay your utility bills etc. It has been recognised as one of the Fintech companies doing well in the POS Agent business because they have a more stable and reliable network flow. We believe that MoniePoint is building up more features.
NowNow
NowNow is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria. Although it is still coming up, it has no special feature when compared with other Fintech companies. But one of the striking things about NowNow is that it has the ability to save and earn interest and offers Naira Master cards to users.
Opay
Opay is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that provides consistent financial services to businesses and individuals. As a mobile money payment solution in Nigeria, it allows its users to pay all types of bills from their Opy app. There are other packages it provides like loans, and saving with daily interest paid directly into your account.
One of the features that make Opay outstanding is its good customer care services. You can easily access Opay customer service representatives through their Opay app no matter who you are as far as you have business with them. There is also an opportunity for users to initiate a live chat with real persons( that is Opay staff) and your issues will be attended to and sorted out as fast as possible.
Paga
Paga is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that was founded in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu. It has made it easy for users to send, and receive money and pay bills online without stress. It is reliable and can even work without an internet connection. You can carry out your transactions by simply dialling this code *242#. One of the services Paga provides is that users can be able to transfer any amount of money without charges and make payments and bank deposits. Paga also offer remittance services
Visa announced its partnership with Paga in March 2020 which has enabled Paga users to make transactions on Visa’s global network. Paga is currently planning on how to expand its operations and activities to other countries outside Nigeria Paga claims to have over 12 million users with more than 20,000 agents across the country.
Palmpay
Palmpay is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria with features similar to Opay where you can apply for loans, send and receive money, pay bills and save money. It also offers 99 free transfers monthly which are more than what the Kuda app offers its users with consistent provision of a good network. One of the downsides of Palmpay is that users find it difficult to communicate with their customer service representatives.
Paystack
Paystack is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade (CEO) and Ezra Olubi (CTO). It is an app created with the mindset that even if it is difficult to do business, getting paid for doing business shouldn’t be hard. It makes online payment easier and more consistent for business owners and consumers as well. Paystack also helps users to receive payments using invoices and creating payment pages.
With Paystack, your business can complete payments from clients using Mastercards, Verve cards or Visa cards from anywhere in the world. Paystack has no less than 17,000 business clients such as Betway, Domino, IrokoTV, MTN, and Taxify.
PiggyVest
Piggyvest is one of the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria used for saving money at interest higher than what is obtainable in the traditional banks, It has different saving plans it offers its users and helps you set up automatic daily savings. After setting up the automatic daily savings, the amount you set will automatically be deducted from your account on daily basis and saved on Piggyvest until the set day for withdrawal and you will withdraw the stipulated interest of 8% per annum.
It has a safety lock feature which enables users to fix their funds and lock them for a specified period which can only be withdrawn at maturity. This safety lock feature is similar to fixed deposit accounts in traditional banks in Nigeria. except when you fix it with a time frame yourself and get up to 13% interest to be paid upfront. Piggyvest Has other features like Flex Dollar. Flex Dollar enables users to save dollars and earn interest and can also transfer dollars to anyone using Piggyvest.
Remita
Remita is among the most outstanding Fintech companies in Nigeria that were developed by SystemSpecs and established in 1991 by John Obaro. Rmita launched its mobile app in 2017. It is software that helps organisations like schools, government agencies, individuals, multinational companies, and NGOs to receive and make payments electronically and equally sells software to other organisations. It has a License from the Federal Government and serves as the Federal Government Treasury Single Account (TSA) backbone.
Remita app has focused on being an API service that offers different solutions that include fast loan products for lenders. It serves over 1,000 merchants, organisations and SMEs and the app is used by over 500 microfinance banks. It processes over $30 billion yearly transactions.