Top Nigerian Fintechs and What They Do
Digital Banking
PayConnect
Founded in 2012, PayConnect provides credit within 24 hours to individuals, mostly salary earners, without collateral. Most applicants only have to show they’re employed and are Iikely to remain so during the duration of the loan.
Renmoney
Renmoney provides loans to individuals for small business investments, home renovations, to purchase cars, pay rent, school fees or medical bills. To be eligible, borrowers must be between 22 and 59 years, have a verifiable source of income, live and work in a city where Renmoney operates and have a bank account. A maximum of 6 million naira is available for a 24-month period, while tenors start from as low as three months.
Fundall
Offers digital banking services for individuals and businesses. Individuals can transfer money, request money, save and make payments using the Fundall platform. Businesses can also use Fundall to manage employees, inventory of goods and services as well as schedule payments.
Page Financials
Page Financials describes itself as “your one-stop-shop when you need urgent cash, extra income or any other financial services.” It provides quick loans, investment opportunities and a payments platform. The company promises loans of up to 5 million naira within three hours. For its payments services, Page Financials touts its no-transaction fees regime, high return on investments and ease of transaction among its benefits to customers.
Branch
Branch describes itself as being on “a new frontier of finance — where banks aren’t physical, paperwork is obsolete, and possibility is the end game.” All of the company’s banking is based on the smartphone, and the underlying selling point is freedom and mobility. It claims the use of machine learning and algorithms to determine a customer’s credit worthiness through their smartphones.
Zedvance
Zedvance, which provides digital banking services, says it can process as much as a 5 million naira loan in minutes, with credit packages designed for “all purposes.” Credit can come in the form of Zedvance Nano loans to meet urgent, immediate financial needs, repayable in 15 days, and Zedvance Payroll, which provides salary-based loans that can be spread over 18 months. A Zedvance for Business package is in the works for entrepreneurs and small businesses, according to the company.
https://zedvance.com/
Carbon
Carbon says it provides digital banking for “all lifestyles,” starting customers off with a free Carbon account. This will enable them to get instant loans, pay bills, make transfers and get the opportunity for “high-interest savings.” Credit can be obtained without the need for guarantors or collaterals, while those who save can get interest rates of as much as 11 percent per annum. It also provides virtual and physical debit cards.
Kuda Bank
Kuda Bank operates digital-only banking services focused on consumers and small businesses. Babs Ogundeyi, Kuda’s chief executive officer, says the business aims to serve those in the country as well as those in the diaspora.
Since launching in September 2019, Kuda says its customer base has grown to more than 300,000, with the company processing payments of more than $500 million every month. On the back of the surge in sign up, Kuda raised $10 million earlier in 2021 to fund the expansion of its services.
Payments
Paystack
Founded in 2015, Paystack is focused on providing digital payment solutions for merchants and buyers alike. Its business-to-business network includes payment services for more than 60,000 companies including FedEx, UPS, MTN, the Lagos Internal Revenue Service and AXA Mansard. Its investors include Stripe, Visa, Tencent and start-up incubator Y Combinator.
Paystack was in October 2020 acquired by U.S. payments company Stripe for 200 million dollars in a bid to boost electronic payments opportunities across Africa. Stripe, on its part, has provided digital-payments processing systems for top U.S. companies such as Google, Amazon, Shopify and Zoom.
Flutterwave
Flutterwave provides payments solutions for businesses in Nigeria and across Africa.
Flutterwave, which has processed 140 million transactions worth more than nine billion dollars since its founding, said in March it had raised 170 million dollars to fund its African expansion. It cites research data showing that African ecommerce was worth 16.5 billion dollars in 2017 and was set to reach 29 billion dollars by 2022.
Flutterwave also has a deal with the U.S. payments giant, PayPal Inc. to handle the payments for its African transactions.
Interswitch
Interswitch, founded in 2002, was one of the earliest disrupters of traditional cash- and cheque-based payments in Nigeria through its payment cards. It built the first transactions switching and processing infrastructure, introducing the Verve cards widely used by the banks and accepted in more than 185 countries as we as the Quickteller digital payments, run via the web as well on ATMs.
Interswitch has since expanded across Africa and attracted international investors such as the global payments giant, Visa. Interswitch is also in a partnership with American Express that enables cardholders to make payments in Nigeria, using its processing platform, which also enables Interswitch to integrate with the global payments system of American Express. Previously, holders of American Express could only use them in a few international-brand hotels in the country.
https://www.interswitchgroup.com/quickteller
Paga
Paga has provided mobile payment services in Nigeria since 2009. The platform enables users to transfer money or receive money locally and internationally using their smartphones and other mobile devices. Paga also operates a wallet with which a broad range of payments and financial transactions can be made.
The company, founded by Tayo Oviosu, currently works I’m partnership with Western Union Money Transfer that allows beneficiary credits to go into the receivers’ Paga wallets.
Remita
Remita is an electronics payments provider that offers a variety of payments solutions for insitutions, organizations and individuals. A key advantage touted by Remita is the ability of subscribers to view all their balances from different banks on a single screen and be able to make transfers to one or multiple beneficiaries.
Payments can be made or received in a variety of ways including the Remita app, internet banking, point of sales terminals, debit and credit cards, merchant websites, bank branches, mobile wallets and standing orders.
The Remita platform, which was launched in 2006 by Nigerian company SystemSpecs Limited, is currently the default payment gateway for the federal government’s Single Treasury Account, which unified all payments due to the Treasury.
OPay
OPay, a unit of Chinese-backed popular Opera browser, promises
“the freedom to make quick and easy payments, get cashback, spend smart, and save more.”
The basic requirement for signing into the OPay platform is ownership of a phone line. Subscribersbupon dignity up will be able to pay utility bills and tax as well as make transfers. In the absence of smartphones, users can resort to the USSD codes to make their transactions.
Those who wish to save with OPay can earn as much as 15 percent per annum as interest, higher than what is currently obtainable with traditional banks.
OPay Digital Services Limited was licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2018 and currently has services across the 36 states, with more than 300,000 merchant participants.
Payhippo
Founded in 2019, Payhippo uses a unique formula bases on data analysis to determine the value of loans to disburse to small and medium enterprise borrowers. The transactions are done by smartphone, and Payhippo, which reports a 97 percent repayment rate, is counting on the fast turnaround of loans to grow its customer base.
On the average customers receive about 700,000 naira, with the minimum loan given at about 100,000 naira. The company said it has given out at least 5,000 loans since its inception.
PayDay
Payday, founded in May 2021, processes payments including sending and receiving globally. It also issues virtual Mastercards as well as services enabling payment of tuition and other fees in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. It’s also used by many foreign businesses to pay their clients in Nigeria and across Africa.
Within three weeks of its start in June 2021, PayDay processed more than $1.4 million of transactions, according to company officials. PayDay aims to be a key player in processing intra-Africa payments in the new era of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The company recently raised $1 million toward building what it called the “Paypal of Africa.”
Wealth Management
PiggyVest
PiggyVest is an online savings and investment platform which first started operations in 2016 as Piggybank. It later changed its name in 2019 to PiggyVest as it expanded its offers to include direct investment opportunities for customers, particularly in agriculture-based ventures.
The company said it currently has more than 1 million customers using its app for savings and investment purposes. Services covered include automated savings, which sets aside a specific amount in a given time; fixed savings that pay a specified interest rate for term savings; goal-oriented savings that help customers save toward identifies targets; flexible savings that can be withdrawn at any time the customer wishes, and; dollar savings, aimed at overcoming losses occasioned by exchange-rate depreciations.
CowryWise
Cowrywise, founded in 2017, provides savings and investment services using its app and website. It currently has more than 300,000 subscribers who use its app to buy mutual funds, including those denominated in foreign currency. A total of 21 funds have so far been aggregated for buyers to choose from, with more in the pipeline.
The company, which is popular with millennials, announced in June that it had secured a licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate as a fund or portfolio manager.
Brokerage
Chaka
Chaka was launched in Lagos in October 2019, with with Chief Executive Officer Tosin Osibodu promising subscribers trading access to 37 stock exchanges around the world, including the New York and NASDAQ platforms. Those with Chaka accounts were allowed to invest with as little as 50 dollars.
Chaka, a Nigerian fintech company that enables trading in the international stock market, has received a digital sub-broker license six months after it was restrained by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Signing up to the new licensing category introduced in April ends months of uncertainty after the regulator described Chaka’s activities as illegal in December slammed it with a restraining order. The Lagos-based company is the first fintech company to get the license that enables “a sub-broker” to serve multiple brokers using a digital platform, the company said in a statement on its website.
Bamboo
Bamboo offers subscribers the opportunity to buy and sell U.S. stocks and other securities such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds through their mobile phones or computers.
It says its transactions are protected by Nigerian and U.S. securities and exchange commissions’ regulations. Users accounts are said to be insured to the tune of 500,000 dollars. Bamboos says its services are available as well for corporate and institutional clients as well.
Rise Capital
Rise Capital, better known as Rise Vest, was founded in 2019 to provide dollar-denominated investment opportunities to people in NIgeria. The idea came into being as local investments suffered as oil prices plunged from 2014 and currency devaluations and inflation wiped off value and earnings. Rise was meant to provide some hedge against such shocks in future.
With more than 40,000 investors, Rise offers investment options in three broad categories including stocks, real estate and fixed income securities. The stocks, classified as high-risk, consist of a bouquet of high-performers from tech to energy to retail and even crypto-currencies. The real estate investments are deemed medium risk and focused on buying or renting “high-demand” across the U.S. The fixed-income investments go to a “portfolio of sovereign dollar-denominated bonds with maximum safety,”and are rated low risk.
Transport and Logistics
Moove
Moove is a Nigerian startup that provides financing to help individuals purchase cars and other vehicles. Moove integrates its credit-scoring technology with ride-hailing and logistics platforms in a way that provides the analytics that will be the basis for underwriting customers’ loans.
The company says its business model can provide as much as 95 percent of funding for new vehicles within five days of signing up. Customers have the option of paying back between 24 months and 48 months, using a part of their weekly revenue. Moove is the vehicle finance partner in sub-Saharan Africa for the global ride-hailing company, Uber.
Kobo360
Kobo360 uses an app to build a network of cargo shippers, truck owners, drivers and consignees so that they can reach each other at the click of button. The purpose is to match need with availability, thereby improving the efficiency of the logistics system. Beneficiaries include farmers with goods in remote communities that are now availed an effective means of getting their goods to the relevant buyers and markets. Kobe’s operations are a potential boost to both intra-country trade and international trade, as goods meant for export also benefit from its efficiency on their way to the ports.
Vetifly
Vetifly offers what it calls “an on-demand mobility service” to get you wherever you want to be and when you want to be there. All these can be accomplished through the Vetifly app, which enables you to book your helicopter trips with a few clicks on your app or the website.
Where existing schedules are not convenient, clients have the option to charter their own flights. Vetifly is touted as the solution to the often intractable traffic jams of Nigeria’s commercial capital and biggest city, Lagos.
Plenty Waka (Treepz)
Plentywaka is a bus-hailing and ride-sharing service was founded in Lagos in 2019. Onyeka Akumah the founder, saw business opportunities in a public transportation system that was not only unreliable but could also prove dangerous for being old, in disrepair or overloaded.
Plentywaka’s app links a network of minibus and minivan owners with commuters. Riders are able to see routes and schedules and can reserve rides for their “Daily Waka” Riders can pay with a QR code or an app wallet. “Travel Waka” offers a similar service for interstate travelers.
Insurance
TopCheck Topcheck let’s you find and buy the insurance you need with “just a few clicks.” The website and the app aggregates the various insurance packages operated by leading insurers from carto health insurance, and all the varieties
Another touted quality: “No phone calls or long waits.” https://topcheck.com.ng/
Culled from http://www.nairaweb.ng