The Nigerian economy is projected to grow by $8.79 billion in the next three years. More than half of this projected growth will come from the ICT sector, with fintech being the major driving force.
The Nigerian fintech industry is currently exploding with innovation and opportunities as young Nigerians put in their knowledge and creativity into crafting various solutions that facilitate easy and efficient access to various financial services.
These fintech solutions, many of them owned by SMEs, are providing innovative solutions for millions of Nigerians in diverse sectors. However, competition is also fierce in this sector as several innovative products are being developed. In this race, distinction and value addition for users are critical factors for success.
While many fintech products have become successful and already popular, there are other products already showing huge potential with distinctive features that can cause significant changes. The criteria for selecting these include the uniqueness of their product offering, features, and disruptions in the market while still largely unknown by many. They are also all 100 percent Nigerian.
1. Paylink.ng
Unveiled in February 2020 by SystemSpecs, Paylink.ng is the first payment solution that enables payment and also enables subscribers to have an online store with access to multiple accounts at once. It rides on the success of Remita, another iconic product from one of Nigeria’s biggest and oldest technology firms.
Paylink.ng is a web-based e-commerce platform that empowers businesses to showcase their products and services online and get paid instantly through multiple channels by sending a link instead of bank accounts. Whether you run your business on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or you have a website which customers visit to pay you, this solution is fit for purpose. All you have to do is get a link customised to your business or personal profile name and logo and send it to your customers for payment.
Some of its likeable features include its convenient and fast registration, ecommerce interface for small business owners, and automatic receipts for transactions. Paylink’s charges are also quite low.
Read Also: ‘With Fintechs growth, Nigeria may become Africa’s financial hub’
2. Abeg App
Abeg is Nigerian fintech’s response to the rising influence of Generation Z in the country, many of whom are not yet employed but would like to ask for money from friends and relatives. Instead of sending long texts and account numbers, they can create a request via the app and send it to their benefactor.
Registration and usage are seamless. Once you have an account and your BVN has been verified with your phone number, the system scans through your contacts to identify those who have installed the app on their phones. It is often described as the Nigerian version of the popular American fintech solution, Cash App.
While still largely unknown by many Nigerians, its unique approach in solving fintech challenges has made it increasingly popular amongst young Nigerians on social media. Product features in view include group savings (called “Ajo” in some parts of Nigeria), and fundraising. Another likeable feature is the app’s interesting interface and informal messaging.
Abeg App shocked many when it was announced as the headline sponsor of the 2021 Big Brother Naija reality show.
3. Kuda Bank
Formerly known as Kudimoney, Kudabank is Nigeria’s first mobile-only bank licensed by the Nigerian Central Bank with zero card maintenance fees, free transfers, and automatic savings. It calls itself the bank of the free. Kuda Bank is also an attempt to maximize the use of artificial intelligence for banking and finance management.
The Kuda Bank app has tools for tracking spending habits, helping users to save more, etc. With its unique service offering, Kuda Bank is making savings, investment and financial planning easily accessible thereby enabling financial inclusion.
One of the likeable features of Kuda Bank is that it pays up to 15 percent interest every year on savings automatically. Also, users get to pay absolutely nothing for sending money and debit cards are free.
4. Okra
Described by Forbes as Africa’s first API fintech started by a woman, this is another fintech solution that has been silently making an impact and recognized mostly by its users who are in the corporate sector. However, Okra caught the interest of several people recently when it received $3.5m in a series B funding backed by Accenture and Susa Ventures. Okra is an Application Programming Interface (API), a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.
Okra’s API empowers companies and developers to build products with seamless access to inclusive financial data and secure payments.
Founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside in January 2020, Okra has aggressively pushed by connecting to all banks in Nigeria and even claims to have a 99.9 percent guaranteed uptime.
5. Sajenwa
Named after the popular Yoruba greeting, ‘Sa je n wa’ (‘How is business?’), Sajenwa is a multipurpose Point of Sale solution. A constantly evolving platform, Sajenwa also provides Inventory and Human Resource Management Services.
Sajenwa handles a range of critical inventory functions including physical counts, receiving, item transfer, and on-the-fly price-cost-quantity maintenance. It also manages daily expenses and offers a fluent encoding process. While still largely unknown by the media, Sajenwa is being used by several small businesses across the country.
