“This article was written by Ade Olabode, and was first published on his Medium page. If there’s one area that a lot of people agree has the potential to impact a lot of Nigerians; it’s Fintech. While there’s no universally accepted definition for Fintech; its acknowledged to cover tech startups focused on mobile money, payments,…”
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Hey @fintechng from your name, you surely must be interested in an article about ‘Fintech in Nigeria’. Happy to hear your thoughts
BTW, did you say you knew the piggybank.ng guys? I have some free advice for them.
haha @PapaOlabode very nice to read the article! Very well said! From my name you can tell i’m a fintech fanatic! We should trade investment banking stories sometimes (i’m an ex-UBS and JP Morgan guy).
I don’t know the piggybank.ng guys, I cosy up to all fintech startups on TC radar by default. I too was just giving them free advice but i don’t actually know the guys.
You hit three very key points close to my heart. A fully online bank, consumer data and online lending i.e (Aella credit and One-Credit) I actually need to collaborate with these guys so if you know them please send my way.
My biggest issue with fintech in Africa as a whole has been regulations. While this is a problem, a solution is to integrate around it till it gets better. For example acting as a middle man/facilitator as opposed to actually owning the process outright might save you from paying for expensive licenses. Notice that a start-up in any of these three areas has the ability to command a multimillion dollar valuation if done right.
Another is lack of collaboration among the startup players. Why are the guys from Aella credit and One-Credit not active here? There is some much they can source from the crowd for free. I was at a Harvard African business conference like two weeks ago and I really liked the theme; integrating around the problem. I believe he said something like, because of corruption around the Nigerian ports, indomie ended up building their own port so they could control the process (a different industry but you get the idea).
Data & Analytics - Do you know how crazy it is that GTB/Zenith/etc cannot predict what my expected balance should be at the end of next month, even though I have been a client with them for a million years? Then how can they even predict losses on loans they extend?
All in all though, I really think fintech in Nigeria specifically has been sleeping on a bicycle as the industry is too ripe for disruption, not just incremental innovation. There is so much I can talk about but if you are specifically interested in an aspect within the ecosystem let me know.
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Lol, I’m sure we can swap war stories!
But definitely agree with your points especially in respect to regulation and collaboration. Unfortunately Regulation part can be a hopeless minefiled as power/decisions likely resides with people who only have the incumbents interests at heart.
Collaboration is the key. Since of course it’s within our power to do so. We (@xolubi, @Tolu & @akamaozu) spoke about this extensively in Crudcast. Good listen I think.
I’m sure the banks will say they do data & analytics, but of course it means something else to them.
P.S Don’t personally know any the Aella or One credit guys.
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interesting perspective @fintechng