Africa has been recognized as the one of the most promising market for fintech startups and products, with around 80 percent of the continent’s 330 million adults being unbanked. The lack of financial resources and services has led to a surge in the growth of the fintech industry over the past few years, triggering the emergence of major fintech and non-bank platforms that are overtaking traditional bank services and mobile networks. Some major players in the fintech market including MFS Africa and Nomanini demonstrate a clear spike in interest towards non-bank mobile and web-based payment platforms, with MFS Africa connecting nearly 80 million mobile wallets in Africa on a cross-border payment network that enables users to send cross-currency and cross-network transactions with ease. Fintech startups in Africa developed and distributed payment networks banks failed to integrate into their existing financial infrastructure, drastically altering the trend in Africa’s financial industry, from conventional banking services to innovative and new generation fintech products. The preference of African users towards fintech and cross-border payment networks over traditional banking services have led to a significant growth in investment and funding from local investors and financial institutions. The risen capital for fintech firms and research institutions in the field secured financial technologies as a core part of Africa’s financial industry, creating a dangerous competition for banks to deal with. Recently however, banks have shown no interest in competing with fintech firms. Instead, they recognize the level of innovation and disruption newly developed and designed fintech platforms bring. Thus, bank to support and fund emerging fintech startups, with a long-term vision of creating a healthy financial industry and market for all countries and citizens in Africa. According to a study, the total funding for fintech startups and products in 2015 reached an all time high record, […]
