The fintech space in Nigeria is very competitive as there are countless numbers of fintech startups/companies competing for market share.

Even the traditional banks are being forced to innovate to guarantee their survival amidst the onslaught of fintech startups or digital banks.

This is why investors and venture funds are pouring a lot of dollars in these fintechs. Here are some of the top fintech startups in Nigeria that are making financial services accessible to the unbanked population, promoting financial inclusion and enabling seamless payment.

Kuda Bank

Formerly known as Kudi Money, it rebranded to Kuda Bank after being granted a license by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The startup was founded by Babatunde Ogundeyi in 2017. Kuda Bank is designed for your smartphone, free of ridiculous charges, and great at helping you budget, spend smartly and save more. The startup raised $1.6m Led by Haresh Aswani in 2019.

Flutterwave

Flutterwave provides a payment service for global merchants and payment service providers. It provides technology, infrastructure, and services to enable global merchants, payment service providers, and helps banks and businesses build secure and seamless payment solutions for their customers by smoothening the exchange of funds.

The company was founded in 2016 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Some of its investors include Andela, Grey Croft & eVentures, and Visa, etc. The startup recently raised $35m.

Carbon

Carbon is a mobile-only digital bank that provides innovative financial services to the financially underserved mass retail segment. It was formerly known as Paylater. Carbon offers bill payments, fund transfer, and savings products, in addition to loans.

OPay

Opera-owned OPay entered the fintech market after acquiring a controlling stake in PayCom; a Nigerian fintech founded by Telnet Nigeria in August 2018. It is a one-stop mobile-based platform for payment, transportation, food and grocery delivery, and other important services in everyday life.

Terrapay

TerraPay builds payments infrastructure globally, providing a B2B real-time cross border payments service for mobile wallets and bank accounts; as well as transaction processing, clearing, and settlement services for regional and domestic faster payment systems. TerraPay raises $9.6 million from Prime Ventures, IFC, and Partech.

Lidya

Lidya is a financial services platform to improve access to credit and finance across frontier and emerging markets starting with Nigeria.

Lidya is a mobile-first technology with strong customer experience and proprietary credit scoring algorithms to help small & medium businesses open an account online in 15 minutes, manage funds, and access credit needed to grow their businesses and plan their futures. It was founded in November 2016 by Ercin Eksin and Tunde Kehinde.

PiggyVest

Formerly Piggybank.ng, PiggyVest enables Nigerian debit cardholders to save little amounts of money frequently with minimal effort. They automate the process of saving tiny amounts daily, weekly, or monthly; and then allowing you to withdraw for free on only set withdrawal dates thereby practically making saving more possible for you by eliminating the temptation to withdraw.

The startup was founded on Feb 15, 2016, by Ayo Akinola, Joshua Chibueze, Nonso Eagle, Odunayo Eweniyi, and Somto Ifezue.

Fairmoney

FairMoney is a mobile banking platform for private and business borrowers. It is an application that uses smartphone data to build an instant credit score and give loans. Backed by European and American investors, with a team of 45 people between Paris, France, and Lagos, Nigeria, and over 350,000 loans disbursed. FairMoney was founded in 2017.

Chipper cash

Chipper Cash is a financial services company that features a software application platform that enables free instant cross-border mobile money transfers in Africa as easy as sending a text message. The company was founded in 2017 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaledand and it is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Paga

Paga is a mobile payment company. Paga is building an ecosystem to enable people to digitally send and receive money and creating simple financial access for everyone. Paga’s first market is Nigeria where it is the leading mobile payment company with over 9 million customers and 17,000 agents. It was founded in 2009 by Jay Alabraba and Tayo Oviosu.

Musa Suleiman
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2 Comments

  • Chris Naza, 12/16/2020 @ 11:30 am Reply

    Thanks for this interesting, well collected article.

    I have a question. I didn’t see Paystack.

    Is there a reason for that?

    • Musa Suleiman, 12/16/2020 @ 12:43 pm Reply

      We agree with you. They are supposed to be there. We will add them. thanks.

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