Top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria

Financial service delivery is gradually merging with emerging technologies to form the now popular 'financial technology' in Nigeria. Here, we give a detailed overview of FinTech in Nigeria and then discuss the top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria in 2022.

Some years ago, FinTech was not a thing or rather, there was a huge gap between financial service delivery and technology. But, today, things are being done differently in the financial sector. Almost every entrepreneur is talking about FinTech.

Check out profiles on LinkedIn; a large percentage would bear headlines like "FinTech Expert". This has got many people asking questions about this terminology. What really is FinTech?

 What is FinTech?

Financial technology, also known as FinTech, is an industry made up of different companies that utilize advanced technology to increase financial services' efficiency and effectiveness.

Let's see it this way- FinTech is simply a technical tool that supports financial services and makes the delivery of such services easier.

FinTech companies are businesses that provide financial services to the public using software. These companies, unlike the traditional banking system, are not hindered by factors like legacy operating systems.

FinTech businesses are agile, flexible, have the capacity to bring up innovative ideas and work with experts in the information and technology sphere. Shortly, we would discuss the top 10 best FinTech companies currently operating in Nigeria.

 FinTech in Nigeria

Banking in Nigeria has improved over the years. Competition amongst the individual banks has made for more improvements as the banks try to offer their customers the best service.

However, if we are frank, we'd see that there are still gaps yet to be filled. There is still a lot to be done to offer consumers maximum satisfaction with financial service delivery.

A majority of banking service consumers in Nigeria are underserved. For instance, when you get to the rural areas, there is a lack of access to services; even those living in the urban areas can't access some financial services such as loan because of certain rules guiding the banking sector.

Poor user experience has frustrated a lot of people in the country using the banks' financial services.

These and more have created gaps that FinTech companies in Nigeria now seek to fill. The top FinTech companies in Nigeria have taken advantage of the openings to developed better financial tools and services for the masses.

The Fintech sector in Nigeria is still young. However, so far, they have been able to bring up some innovative ideas that have benefited the public, such as addressing issues of unflexible savings, bringing up quick loan strategies and investments, providing online payment gateway and seamless payments, amongst others.

 List of top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria in 2022

Currently, Nigeria boasts of more than 200 FinTech companies. Here is a list of the top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria:

1. Flutterwave
2. Paystack
3. Accelerex
4. PiggyVest
5. Paga
6. Interswitch
7. E-tranzact
8. Carbon Paylater
9. Remita (SystemSpecs)
10. Kuda Bank

From 2014 to 2019, the FinTech industry in Nigeria generated more than $600 million in funding.

In 2019 alone, the industry attracted $122 million (25% of the $491.6 million generated by African Fintech startups).

 1. Flutterwave

Who hasn't heard of Flutterwave at this point, especially with their recent feats? The African FinTech company was founded in 2006 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and has steadily gained recognition over the years.

This tech startup is rated one of the top FinTech companies in Nigeria that help customers send, receive money and pay bills. It has partnered with over 40 banks across various African nations and has processed 100 million transactions.

This top Nigerian FinTech company is set to connect African businesses with businesses in other continents with powerful partnerships. In 2019, Flutterwave entered a partnership with Visa to launch Alipay and GetBarter, a consumer payment product.

This Nigerian-based FinTech company also initiated a partnership with Binance, making it possible for Nigerians to buy Bitcoins using the naira currency.

Flutterwave was celebrated for raising as much as $170 million, which placed it at over $1 billion in value. The Nigerian payment company has raised not less than $225 million and has secured over $200 million in funding.

Shortly after the news of being valued at over $1 billion went viral, the company followed it up with an announcement stating that Flutterwave is collaborating with PayPal to enable businesses in Nigeria and other African countries to receive payments.

According to Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola on Twitter, "This removes the restriction for African merchants to accept Paypal because once you have @theflutterwave for business, PayPal is now one of your payment types".

Flutterwave has a mobile app built for both Android and iOS. It is also the developer of Barter and Rave, 2 popular financial service apps in use today.

Flutterwave has offices in Lagos and San Francisco and has over 280,000 businesses carrying out businesses on its platform. This top Nigerian Fintech company currently operates in 20 African countries.

 2. Paystack

Paystack takes up the number 2 position in our list of the top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria in 2022. The company is a leading and growing financial technology company in Nigeria.

Founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade (the company CEO) and Ezra Olubi (the company's CTO), Paystack runs with the mindset that even though it is hard to build a business, getting paid shouldn't be hard.

Paystack makes online payment easier and more consistent for businesses and consumers. The Paystack online payment gateway enables users to receive payments using invoices and creating payment pages.

With Paystack, your business can complete payment from clients using Visa cards, Verve cards or Mastercard from any part of the world. This makes it one of the top best Fintech companies in Nigeria.

Paystack is rated one of the top FinTech companies in Nigeria as the company has not less than 17,000 business clients such as Betway, MTN, IrokoTV, Domino and Taxify. It has been enlisted in the world top 250 FinTech companies alongside two other Nigerian companies.

 3. Accelerex

Accelerex is another leading fintech in Nigeria to watch out for in 2022 as it continues to take giant strides towards accelerating e-payments across Africa. The company, which commenced operations in 2013, has continued to exceed customers' expectations by anticipating and meeting their demand for fast and secure fintech products, solutions and services. 

The company has consistently ranked as the number one Payment Terminal Service Provider in Nigeria regarding the value of transactions processed since 2019. It supports 95% of Nigerian banks, with over 90,000 Merchants across the 36 states in the country.

The name Accelerex is synonymous with reliable, cutting-edge electronic payments in Nigeria. It birthed the expansion of the brand's operations to Ghana, Kenya, and DR Congo, with plans underway to grow to other African countries before the end of the year.   

Accelerex offers a rich bouquet of products and solutions that make e-payment and business processes seamless. One of these is the Accelerex Agent Network Platform (ANP), a robust web-based portal uniquely designed to serve all stakeholders in the Agency Banking business and make their business operations simpler and more convenient.

Prioritising speed and security in the development of products and solutions, it went further to create a solution that caters to the needs of retailers with RexRetail, an SME-tailored holistic solution for all retail business needs.

The product allows small and medium-sized merchants to digitise their retail operations around inventory management, cashier management, and payment acceptance while giving them the power to remotely manage store operations and monitor the performance of each outlet. Its online payment gateway, RexPay, helps merchants receive payments quickly and securely.

Customer-centric in its approach, the company has a 24/7 state-of-the-art Contact Centre that ensures quick response to enquiries, swift complaint resolution and customer support.

Accelerex also has Field Response Representatives across the country dedicated to providing instant support to its merchants. Its adoption of regional offices in the significant geopolitical zones in the country – Lagos, South West, South East, South-South, North Central and Core North - brings Accelerex closer to its customers.

Accelerex Holdings Group, the parent company of Accelerex, joined the league of Fintechs that attracted investment after securing a $20m funding in 2020 to drive expansion and new product development across the group. 

Accelerex has received several recognitions and awards, including the highly coveted Central Bank of Nigeria's Cashless Driver Award. The fintech company has also been certified as one of the best places to work in Nigeria by Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience and leadership behaviours.

 4. PiggyVest

PiggyVest is one of the best platforms for saving. With PiggyVest, you get to save money at an interest rate higher than that offered by traditional banks. It is one of the top best FinTech companies in Nigeria.

PiggyVest offers different saving plans. You can decide to go for the PiggyBank feature on the platform, which enables you to set automatically the amount of money you want to save daily.

The amount will automatically be deducted from your account every day and saved in PiggyVest until the set time for withdrawal, where you withdraw with the stipulated interest (current 8% p.a).

The Safelock feature lets you fix your funds and lock them up for a specified period. You can only withdraw the money when it has matured. It is similar to the fixed deposit account in the traditional banks in Nigeria, except you get to fix the tenor yourself and get up to 13% interest (upfront).

There are also other features on PiggyVest, such as the Flex Dollar that enables you to save in dollars, earn interest and transfer dollars to anyone on PiggyVest.

 5. Paga

Paga is another company making waves in the FinTech industry. It has made it easy for users to send and receive money in Nigeria and is one of Nigeria's top 10 FinTech companies in 2022.

It was founded by Tayo Oviosu in 2009 and is one of Nigeria's top 10 FinTech companies. It has been featured alongside Paystack in the list of the world top 250 FinTech companies.

Paga is a mobile payment company that is tested, reliable and quick Even without an internet connection, users can make payment by simply dialling the code, *242#.

The initial goal of Paga was to enable users to transfer money without charges regardless of the amount. However, with time, the company brought in other features that will allow bank deposits, bill payments, and pay in some stores.

In March 2020, Visa announced that it had entered a partnership with Paga on payments and technology. This collaboration enables Paga users to make transactions on Visa's global network.

Paga, since 2020 started making moves to expand to other countries asides from Nigeria. It acquired the Ethiopian software development company, Apposit in January 2020 and opened an office in Mexico.

This top Nigerian FinTech company boasts over 12 million users, with more than 20,000 agents in different parts of the country.

 6. Interswitch

Interswitch is one of the big names in the FinTech industry in Nigeria. This Quickteller owner provides online payment gateways and solutions. Online buyers have significantly benefited from their services.

The company was founded by Mitchell Elegbe and started as an electronic payments processing and transaction switching company in 2002.

Among the financial products offered by Interswitch are online consumer payment platforms, point-of-sale terminals, Verve and its ATM card.

It is a commerce company with integrated digital payments and focuses on businesses in Africa. It is one of the oldest FinTech companies in Nigeria.

As of May 2019, Interswitch revealed that it was processing over 500 million transactions in a month. The same year, the company acquired a 60% stake in eClat, a health technology company.

Interswitch also owns Retailpay, verve debit card, Smartgov and numerous automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country.

 7. E-tranzact

E-tranzact is also one of the oldest FinTech companies in Nigeria. It is also one of the top best FinTech companies in Nigeria. It also offers a solution to payment issues in Nigeria, enabling businesses to accept payments online.

The founder and CEO of the company are Niyi Toluwalope. The company also owns financial service providers like Mobile Topup, PocketMoni, CorporatePay, BankIT and ATM CardlexCash.

E-transact was founded in 2003 and has since processed payment requests from different channels such as ATM, POS, Web, and transactions that utilize mobile automation. It supports networks like VISA, AMEX and MasterCard.

In 2018, one of the company's platforms was reported to have been involved in an N11 billion fraud. For this reason, CBN ordered the immediate removal of some significant directors of the FinTech company, including the then CEO, Valentin Obi.

This scandal dealt a blow to the company's public image as it recorded a loss of N3.1 billion after tax in 2018. However, the company returned to life the following year as it reported a profit of N96 million after-tax.

Today E-tranzact is rated one of the top 10 FinTech companies in Nigeria. In 2019, it received the Best Corporate Turnaround and Transformation award at the Business Day Top 25 CEOs and Next Bulls Awards.

Asides from Nigeria, E-tranzact operates in other African countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Cote d'Ivoire. It also operates in the United Kingdom.

 8. Carbon Paylater

Paylater, now called Carbon, is a loan app for Nigerians. This company gives out loans to Nigerians through its mobile app, thus eliminating the hassles of getting loans from traditional banks.

This lending platform is owned by One Finance Limited and started operations in 2016. User's don't need to present papers to get a loan on the platform, and their services are easily accessible.

Another good thing is that the Carbon app is quick, simple to use, well designed and works efficiently. Here you can borrow money instantly irrespective of your location in the country.

You can also get a loan on the app without a guarantor or collateral. These two (a guarantor and collateral) are things Nigerian banks request when considering granting an individual a loan.

Carbon also has a feature called Payvest that enables users to save. In 2019, Carbon obtained a $5 million loan from Lendable. After that, it acquired Amplify Pay, making it easier for the Fintech company to introduce novel banking features.

As of 2019, this top Nigerian Fintech company had already generated a revenue of up to $10.4 million and have disbursed not less than $35 million in loans.

Carbon received an award as the Best FinTech Solution in Africa at the AppsAfrica Awards and has continued to stay on board as one of the top Fintech companies in Nigeria.

 9. Remita (SystemSpecs)

Remita has been voted a couple of times as Nigeria's Software of the Year. It has indeed set the pace for many Nigerian FinTech companies.

Remita was developed by SystemSpecs, which John Obaro established in 1991. They help organisations (schools, NGOs, government agencies, multinational companies, SMEs and individuals) make and receive payments electronically.

Remita has been licensed by the Federal Government of Nigeria and serves as the Federal Government Treasury Single Account (TSA) backbone. This company has progressed to one that sells software to organisations with time.

Remita focused on being an API service offering different solutions, including fast loan products for lenders. It launched its mobile app in 2017.

Remita serves over 1,000 merchants, SMEs, and organisations and is used by over 500 microfinance banks. It processes over $30 billion in transactions yearly.

Asides from Remita, another big project launched by SystemSpecs is Paylink. Paylink was established in 2020 as an instant payment solution that enables users to get funds directly into their bank accounts without exposing their bank details.

 10. Kuda Bank

Kuda Bank is also famous in the FinTech industry. It is one of the top 10 best FinTech companies in Nigeria in 2022. With Kuda Bank, you don't have to deal with the charges from the traditional banks.

Kuda Bank eliminates the typical paper process as everything is carried out online. This digital-only bank enables users to open accounts online within minutes.

This top Nigerian FinTech company also offers customized Mastercard ATM cards with no transfer fees or ATM maintenance fees. Deposits are also free.

 Takeaway

The FinTech industry in Nigeria is a promising one and is still booming. This list of the top 10 best FinTech companies only covers a small fraction of the FinTech companies and startups currently operating in the country.

These companies have been able to harness the technological opportunities in the financial service industry; however, there are still many available opportunities and new areas to dive into within the industry.

According to a World Bank report, only about 40% of adults in Nigeria have bank accounts. The question is, what happened to the remaining 60%? Why are they unbanked? Is it because financial services are not accessible? Perhaps that is an issue FinTech companies can unravel and solve.