Stakeholders strive for sustainability amid shrinking funds – New Telegraph

by James · November 30, 2022

The contraction in fintech funding now being experienced during the year has given stakeholders great concern as they look for a new strategy to sustain the performance already recorded in the ecosystem. It was said that the fintech ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa as a continent had experienced slow external funding, which is contrary to the expectation that the ecosystem would grow by 40 percent until 2025 on the continent. HPS Business CEO Gary Ceaplen, speaking at a recent forum, noted that while fintech’s past is in the US, and its present remains entirely in Asia, Africa needs to position itself for what is to come to take advantage of the next fintech revolution. However, he noted that growth in financial services in Africa’s 54 countries would not be uniform.

He said: “While the lion’s share of value in the market (about 40% of revenue) is currently concentrated in South Africa, which has the most mature banking system on the continent, Ghana and Francophone West Africa are expected to show the fastest growth at 15 and 13 percent per year until 2025.

“Nigeria and Egypt follow each other with an expected growth rate of 12 percent per year over the same period. Overall, we expect growth opportunities in Fintech are likely to be concentrated in 11 key country key markets Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, which together accounted for 70 per cent of Africa’s GDP and half of the population.” The President of Africa Fintech Network, Dr. Segun Aina, said the slow pace of funding in the ecosystem seen recently was of great concern to stakeholders in Nigeria and Africa. He said that the continent needs to strategize to at least maintain the success already recorded in the fintech ecosystem, why look for the way to grow it.

m, many fintech firms have laid off thousands of their workers, indicating that the ecosystem is seriously facing major challenges, not only in the Western world, but also throughout Africa. He said: “What’s next for African fintech is a very big question because funds are drying up today for African fintech. Fintech companies in Africa had for the past three to four years witnessed an influx of funds, but this year it has been somewhat slowing down. “Today we are witnessing a lot of layoffs even in fintech. So, what’s next for African fintech, where is the next opportunity for them?”

He said his association had sought to unite fintech across Africa while engaging central banks across the country on the issue of regulation. “Our mandate at the Africa Fintech Network is to be the platform that unites African fintech and acts as the voice of African fintech in the world.

“We are advocating for all fintech in Africa to address the challenges facing fintech, number one of which is regulatory issues. And to address this, we are working with the African central banks to ensure that we are of one mind so that regulations from the central banks , which are the primary regulators of fintech, will be done in a way that will not stifle innovation, but promote innovation.” When asked what is next for African fintech, experts said that fintech across the continent must work together to achieve a common goal of improving payments across Africa. They said the collaboration would also help them maintain current growth even as external funding wanes.