The Chief Executive Officer, Cellulant, a pan-African fintech with operations in 18 countries, Akshay Grover, says the Nigerian fintech market stands out on the continent on various counts.
During a media chat, Grover pointed out Nigeria and Kenya are the top two markets in African fintech. He however insisted that Nigeria is ahead of Kenya in terms of market size, technology talents and market offerings. He said the industry would do much better when the macroeconomic challenges are sorted out.
“There are very many lenses through which people look at a market. One lens is market size, and I would say that Nigeria is top of the line. Another lens is, how many new fintech products are coming up in the market? Here, I would say probably that the top two markets are Nigeria and Kenya, Nigeria being ahead.
“The third lens could be the availability of technology talent in the market. Here, I believe Nigeria stands out. So, when I think about different lenses, I think Nigeria is a big player in this space. What I would wish is that the macroeconomic environment in Nigeria would be sort of better.
“This would make a huge difference, not just to the fintech industry, but to other industries in Nigeria,” the expert, who has served in different emerging markets as a financial expert, said.
Grover said Africa competes well among emerging markets, including India and China, in fintech development. He stressed that relevance is a major factor in assessing the performance of each market.
“I think the question is not so much about whether we are ahead or whether they are ahead. It should be: is there a significant pace of innovation happening in Africa?
”I think the answer to that question is a yes. We are being considered equal to many of our peers in other parts of the world in terms of innovating on products and solutions that we are offering our customers in Africa,” he noted.
He said Cellulant would remain at the forefront of developing cutting-edge products to stimulate the growth of Nigeria’s smart payment system and bridge gaps in the market. The market, he said, is strategic to the growth of the company.
“Nigeria is one of our top two markets. So, it is a very important country for Cellulant as a business, and I think there are not too many fintech in Africa that can claim to be very large without being significant in Nigeria.
All the multi-million or billion-dollar businesses that have been created over the last three to five years in Africa have a significant presence in Nigeria,’’ he added.
“I do not think that is a coincidence. In my mind, this is a market that will continue to be of great strategic importance not only to Cellulant but also to most fintech companies,” Grover noted.