Co-Founder of Africa Focused Fintech: Traditional Banks Not Optimized to Serv...
For years, traditional financial institutions in different parts of the world have been attempting to narrow the financial exclusion gap by extending their services to the unbanked population. Yet for many reasons, these institutions still cannot avail their products and services to everyone that needs them. Regulatory Hurdles While there are several reasons cited for why banks are still not able to do this, their failure to serve this unbanked population has, on the other hand, led to the meteoric rise of fintech startups. Instead of relying on metrics often used by traditional banks when....
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A recent report by CR2 on Africa’s fintech transformation suggests traditional financial institutions can still be a part of the fintech financial revolution if they leverage one of their most significant assets: client trust.
Partnerships Between Banks and Fintechs
The report urges financial institutions that wish to accelerate their advance to success in the fintech space to forge partnerships with fintech startups and technology companies. Having such partnerships, as well as their longstanding client networks and more defined regulatory environment, means financial....
African banks, behind the times with fintech, could actually become pioneers in developing new financial technologies like the blockchain and bitcoin. Because these banks largely left it up to telecom companies to assume the role of financial service providers in parts of Africa, the banks are now investing in digital currency startups, according to Quartz Africa. The question is how long will it take. Mbwana Alliy, a managing partner at the Savannah Fund, a technology venture company, said a headwind of fintech disruption is blowing from Europe and Silicon Valley into Africa. Blockchain....
The founder of Africa-focused media and investment company Footprint to Africa, Osita Oparaugo, has urged governments on the continent to embrace cryptocurrency. Africa Must Not Be Left Behind Osita Oparaugo, founder of Footprint to Africa, has argued that a timely embrace of cryptocurrencies by African governments would be beneficial to the continent’s growth prospects. In his remarks published by the Vanguard, Oparaugo, who was co-host of a Decentralized Finance (defi) event in Nigeria, suggested that African countries cannot afford to lag behind when it comes to crypto. After....
Fintech should not be ignored, and various subsectors of this industry are making waves. The fintech industry finds itself at a crossroads right now. Despite the number of financial institutions willing to work with startups increasing every quarter, there is still a large battle ahead. Shaking up the financial industry is a delicate balancing act. Although collaboration is the buzzword right now, the battle lines between banks and fintech startups have not faded by any means. Banks collaborating with fintech incumbents is a positive trend. Entrepreneurs can use all the guidance they can....
According to the findings of the latest study by Disrupt Africa, the number of fintech start-ups based on the African continent grew to 576 in 2021. This figure represents a 17.3% jump from the 491 start-ups that were operating on the continent in 2019. Overall, the number of fintech start-ups in Africa has increased around 90% from the 2017 figure of 301. Nigerian Dominance Leading the charge in this continuing African fintech growth is the West Africa region where “Nigerian figures were up 42.6 percent on 2019.” In Ghana, fintech companies grew by 25% over the same period....